Abstract
By synthesizing more than twenty years of research at the Fernow Experimental Forest, we have documented 7 symptoms of nitrogen saturation in two adjacent watersheds. The symptoms include: 1) high relative rates of net nitrification, 2) long-term increases in stream-water concentrations of nitrate and base cations, 3) relatively high nitrate concentrations in solution losses, 4) little seasonal variability in stream-water nitrate concentrations, 5) a high discharge of nitrate from a young aggrading forest, 6) a rapid increase in nitrate loss following fertilization of a young aggrading forest, and 7) low retention of inorganic nitrogen when compared with other forested sites. These data support current conceptual models of nitrogen saturation and provide a strong, and perhaps the best, example of nitrogen saturation in the United States.
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Peterjohn, W.T., Adams, M.B. & Gilliam, F.S. Symptoms of nitrogen saturation in two central Appalachian hardwood forest ecosystems. Biogeochemistry 35, 507–522 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02183038
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02183038