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Nitrogen-15 signals of leaf-litter-soil continuum as a possible indicator of ecosystem nitrogen saturation by forest succession and N loads

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Abstract

Understanding forest carbon cycling responses to atmospheric N deposition is critical to evaluating ecosystem N dynamics. The natural abundance of 15N (δ15N) has been suggested as an efficient and non-invasive tool to monitor N pools and fluxes. In this study, three successional forests in southern China were treated with four levels of N addition. In each treatment, we measured rates of soil N mineralization, nitrification, N2O emission and inorganic N leaching as well as N concentration and δ 15N of leaves, litters and soils. We found that foliar N concentration and δ15N were higher in the mature broadleaf forest than in the successional pine or mixed forests. Three-year continuous N addition did not change foliar N concentration, but significantly increased foliar δ 15N (p < 0.05). Also, N addition decreased the δ 15N of top soil in the N-poor pine and mixed forests and significantly increased that of organic and mineral soils in N-rich broadleaf forests (p < 0.05). In addition, the soil N2O emission flux and inorganic N leaching rate increased with increasing N addition and were positively correlated with the 15N enrichment factor (ε p/s) of forest ecosystems. Our study indicates that δ 15N of leaf, litter and soil integrates various information on plant species, forest stand age, exogenous N input and soil N transformation and loss, which can be used to monitor N availability and N dynamics in forest ecosystems caused by increasing N deposition in the future.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by National Key Research and Development Program (2010CB833502), National Natural Science Foundation of China (30600071, 40601097, 30590381), Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-432, O7V70080SZ, LENOM07LS-01) and the President Fund of GUCAS (O85101PM03). We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Sherry Becky, Dr. Xuhui Zhou, and Dr. Yuanhe Yang for revising the English writing of the manuscript. We appreciate the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and effort on this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Huajun Fang & Guirui Yu

  2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shulan Cheng, Tianhong Zhu & Jiaojiao Zheng

  3. South China Botanic Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Jiangming Mo & Junhua Yan

  4. Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Yiqi Luo

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  1. Huajun Fang
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  2. Guirui Yu
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Fang, H., Yu, G., Cheng, S. et al. Nitrogen-15 signals of leaf-litter-soil continuum as a possible indicator of ecosystem nitrogen saturation by forest succession and N loads. Biogeochemistry 102, 251–263 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-010-9438-1

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