Abstract
A critical challenge of biogeochemical research is to distinguish between the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on nutrient cycles. Natural agents of disturbance – particularly wind and ice storms, insect defoliation episodes, and fire – are stochastic and highly variable; hence, it is difficult to develop broad generalizations about the effects of such exogenous perturbations on ecosystem pattern and process (Waring and Schlesinger 1985). Nonetheless, examples of disturbance effects are apparent (Lemon 1961; Mattson and Addy 1975; Bormann and Likens 1979a; Whitney and Johnson 1984; Bruederle and Stearns 1985), pointing to their importance in the regulation of biogeochemical cycles in general, nitrogen (N) cycles in particular (Swank et al. 1981; Likens and Bormann 1995; Mitchell et al. 1996; Eshleman et al. 1998). Here, we review the impact of ice storms on N cycling in forest ecosystems, also reviewing (and comparing) disturbance effects on N cycling more generally.
* Some parts of this chapter are drawn from Houlton et al. (2003) and reused here with permission by Springer.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the U.S.D.A. Forest Service for providing precipitation and stream data that was critical to this analysis. The HBEF is administered by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and is a National Science Foundation (Plant InteractionsField) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Support for this study was provided by the NSF through the LTER program. This is a contribution of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study.
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Houlton, B.Z., Driscoll, C.T. (2011). The Effects of Ice Storms on the Hydrology and Biogeochemistry of Forests. In: Levia, D., Carlyle-Moses, D., Tanaka, T. (eds) Forest Hydrology and Biogeochemistry. Ecological Studies, vol 216. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1363-5_31
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