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Graminoid Removal Reduces the Increase in N2O Fluxes Due to Nitrogen Fertilization in a Boreal Peatland

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Abstract

The increase in nitrogen (N) deposition may affect nitrous oxide (N2O) emission in boreal peatlands by increasing N availability and/or altering vegetation composition. However, the effects of changes in vegetation composition (due to the increase in N deposition) on N2O emission are still unknown. Therefore, we used a factorial design, comprising the removal of plant functional groups and N fertilization to investigate their independent effects and combined effects on N2O fluxes at an ombrotrophic blanket bog in Western Newfoundland, Canada. The results reveal that N2O emission significantly increased with N fertilization. Notably, the effect of N addition on N2O fluxes was modulated by the removal of graminoids. In particular, the removal of graminoids reduced 69% of the N2O emission increases due to N fertilization in the third year of the experiment. This result suggests that the enhancement of graminoid abundance due to increases in N deposition/fertilization may dramatically increase N2O emissions in boreal peatlands leading to stronger impacts on the global climate and stratospheric ozone depletion in the future if no countermeasures to reduce reactive N emission are undertaken.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants awarded to J. Wu from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)-Discovery Grant, Canada Foundation for Innovation-John R. Evans Leaders Fund, Research & Development Corporation (RDC, NL)- Leverage R&D, RDC-Ignite R&D, RDC-RCRI (Regional Collaborative Research Initiative); Humber River Basin Research Initiative of NL, Vice-President Research Fund; Institute for Biodiversity, Ecosystem Science; Graduate Student Baseline Fellowship from School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University. This work has also received a grant from Vietnamese International Education Development (VIED). We would like to thank Riad Eissa, Asare Gymiah, and Maryam Hajheidari for their assistance in field sampling in the summer of 2016 and Jordan Chaffey and Muhammad Mumtaz for their assistance in field sampling in the summer of 2015. We would like to thank Ms. Beverly Young for her English editing. We would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environment and Sustainability, School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, Newfoundland, A2H 5G4, Canada

    Thuong Ba Le, Jianghua Wu, Yu Gong & Judith Vogt

  2. Graduate Program in Environmental Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

    Thuong Ba Le, Jianghua Wu, Yu Gong & Judith Vogt

  3. Vietnam National University of Forestry, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Thuong Ba Le

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  1. Thuong Ba Le
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  2. Jianghua Wu
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Correspondence to Jianghua Wu.

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Jianghua Wu conceived and designed the study, and provided the funding for this study. Jianghua Wu, Thuong Ba Le, Yu Gong, and Judith Vogt carried out the study and analyzed the data. Thuong Ba Le wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Jianghua Wu, Yu Gong, and Judith Vogt edited and commented the first draft of the manuscript. All authors were involved in the revision.

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Le, T.B., Wu, J., Gong, Y. et al. Graminoid Removal Reduces the Increase in N2O Fluxes Due to Nitrogen Fertilization in a Boreal Peatland. Ecosystems 24, 261–271 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00516-5

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