Ecosystems

, Volume 12, Issue 8, pp 1343–1351 | Cite as

Global Within-Site Variance in Soil Solution Nitrogen and Hydraulic Conductivity Are Correlated with Clay Content

Article
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Abstract

Nutrient fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems are governed by complex biological and physical interactions. Ecologists’ mechanistic understanding of these interactions has focused on biological controls including plant uptake and microbial processing. However, ecologists and hydrologists have recently demonstrated that physical controls are also important. Here, we show that within-site spatial variation in soil solution N concentrations is a function of soil clay content across a globally diverse array of field sites. Clay content explained 35 and 53% of the coefficient of variation (CV) in soil solution nitrate (NO3 −) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), respectively. The CV of soil hydraulic conductivity is a similar function of clay content, suggesting that soil hydrology may be a significant mechanism affecting variation in soil solution N. Although vegetation physiognomy and soil C/N ratios are known to affect soil solution N concentrations, neither was significantly related to within-site spatial variation in NO3 − or DON. However, the spatial variation of NO3 − and DON was greater in younger forests than in paired older forests. Our data show that the heterogeneity of an important resource, soil solution N, is a predictable function of clay content. Resource heterogeneity, such as that described here for soil solution N, can affect population, community, and ecosystem processes.

Keywords

leaching lysimeter soil hydrology resource heterogeneity soil texture 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Meg Mobley and Dan Richter graciously provided unpublished data. MJC was supported by USDA National Needs and NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve Graduate Fellowships. JPK was supported by the A.W. Mellon Foundation.

Supplementary material

10021_2009_9293_MOESM1_ESM.doc (300 kb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOC 300 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Crop and Soil SciencesThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkUSA

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