Dataset Information

Isotopic signals of summer denitrification in a northern hardwood forested catchment.

ABSTRACT: Despite decades of measurements, the nitrogen balance of temperate forest catchments remains poorly understood. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition often greatly exceeds streamwater nitrogen losses; the fate of the remaining nitrogen is highly uncertain. Gaseous losses of nitrogen to denitrification are especially poorly documented and are often ignored. Here, we provide isotopic evidence (?(15)NNO3 and ?(18)ONO3) from shallow groundwater at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest indicating extensive denitrification during midsummer, when transient, perched patches of saturation developed in hillslopes, with poor hydrological connectivity to the stream, while streamwater showed no isotopic evidence of denitrification. During small rain events, precipitation directly contributed up to 34% of streamwater nitrate, which was otherwise produced by nitrification. Together, these measurements reveal the importance of denitrification in hydrologically disconnected patches of shallow groundwater during midsummer as largely overlooked control points for nitrogen loss from temperate forest catchments.

SUBMITTER: Wexler SK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4246341 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Isotopic signals of summer denitrification in a northern hardwood forested catchment.

Wexler Sarah K SK Goodale Christine L CL McGuire Kevin J KJ Bailey Scott W SW Groffman Peter M PM

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20141103 46

Despite decades of measurements, the nitrogen balance of temperate forest catchments remains poorly understood. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition often greatly exceeds streamwater nitrogen losses; the fate of the remaining nitrogen is highly uncertain. Gaseous losses of nitrogen to denitrification are especially poorly documented and are often ignored. Here, we provide isotopic evidence (δ(15)NNO3 and δ(18)ONO3) from shallow groundwater at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest indicating extensive ...[more]

PMID: 25368188

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Project description:Trends in living aboveground biomass and inputs to the pool of coarse woody debris (CWD) in an undisturbed, old-growth hemlock-northern hardwood forest in northern MI were estimated from multi-decade observations of permanent plots. Growth and demographic data from seven plot censuses over 47 years (1962-2009), combined with one-time measurement of CWD pools, help assess biomass/carbon status of this landscape. Are trends consistent with traditional notions of late-successional forests as equilibrial ecosystems? Specifically, do biomass pools and CWD inputs show consistent long-term trends and relationships, and can living and dead biomass pools and trends be related to forest composition and history? Aboveground living biomass densities, estimated using standard allometric relationships, range from 360-450 Mg/ha among sampled stands and types; these values are among the highest recorded for northeastern North American forests. Biomass densities showed significant decade-scale variation, but no consistent trends over the full study period (one stand, originating following an 1830 fire, showed an aggrading trend during the first 25 years of the study). Even though total above-ground biomass pools are neither increasing nor decreasing, they have been increasingly dominated, over the full study period, by very large (>70 cm dbh) stems and by the most shade-tolerant species (Acer saccharum and Tsuga canadensis). CWD pools measured in 2007 averaged 151 m(3)/ha, with highest values in Acer-dominated stands. Snag densities averaged 27/ha, but varied nearly ten-fold with canopy composition (highest in Tsuga-dominated stands, lowest in Acer-dominated); snags constituted 10-50% of CWD biomass. Annualized CWD inputs from tree mortality over the full study period averaged 1.9-3.2 Mg/ha/yr, depending on stand and species composition. CWD input rates tended to increase over the course of the study. Input rates may be expected to increase over longer-term observations because, (a) living biomass is increasingly dominated by very large trees whose dead trunks have longer residence time in the CWD pool, and (b) infrequent major disturbances, thought to be important in the dynamics of these forests, have not occurred during the study period but would be expected to produce major, episodic pulses in CWD input. Few fragments of old-growth cool-temperate forests remain, but such forests can constitute a very large carbon pool on a per-area basis. The carbon sink/source status of these forests remains unclear. While aboveground living biomass at this study site shows no strong aggrading or declining trend over the last half-century, this remains a modest span in the innate time-scale of late-successional forest. The effects of rare disturbances, long-term shifts in composition and size structure, and changes in soil carbon and CWD pools may all influence long-term carbon status.

Project description:In closed-canopy forests, gap formation and closure are thought to be major drivers of forest dynamics. Crown defoliation by insects, however, may also influence understory resource levels and thus forest dynamics. We evaluate the effect of a forest tent caterpillar outbreak on understory light availability, soil nutrient levels and tree seedling height growth in six sites with contrasting levels of canopy defoliation in a hardwood forest in northern lower Michigan. We compared resource levels and seedling growth of six hardwood species before, during and in the three years after the outbreak (2008-2012). Canopy openness increased strongly during the forest tent caterpillar outbreak in the four moderately and severely defoliated sites, but not in lightly defoliated sites. Total inorganic soil nitrogen concentrations increased in response to the outbreak in moderately and severely defoliated sites. The increase in total inorganic soil nitrogen was driven by a strong increase in soil nitrate, and tended to become stronger with increasing site defoliation. Seedling height growth increased for all species in the moderately and severely defoliated sites, but not in lightly defoliated sites, either during the outbreak year or in the year after the outbreak. Growth increases did not become stronger with increasing site defoliation, but were strongest in a moderately defoliated site with high soil nutrient levels. Growth increases tended to be strongest for the shade intolerant species Fraxinus americana and Prunus serotina, and the shade tolerant species Ostrya virginiana. The strong growth response of F. americana and P. serotina suggests that recurring forest tent caterpillar outbreaks may facilitate the persistence of shade intolerant species in the understory in the absence of canopy gaps. Overall, our results suggest that recurrent canopy defoliation resulting from cyclical forest insect outbreaks may be an additional driver of dynamics in temperate closed-canopy forests.

Dataset Information

Isotopic signals of summer denitrification in a northern hardwood forested catchment.

Publications

Isotopic signals of summer denitrification in a northern hardwood forested catchment.

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