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Nitrogen cycling in tropical and temperate savannas

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Abstract

Savannas are the most common vegetation type in the tropics and subtropics, ranging in physiognomy from grasslands with scattered woody plants to woodlands with heterogeneous grass cover. Productivity and organic matter turnover in savannas are controlled by interactions between water and nutrient availability, and this basic environmental structure is modified by fire frequency and land management practices. We compared temperate and tropical savannas in order to understand the strength of nitrogen (N) limitation of productivity. American tropical and temperate savannas are N limited systems, and the N cycle differs according to the woody plant density, fire frequency, land use change, N deposition and N fixation. Grazing and conversion to pasture have been the predominant land-use changes in most savannas. In the Cerrado and the Llanos tropical savannas, intensified use of fire for pasture management is leading to decreased woody plant density. Oppositely, in the Chaco and North American temperate savannas, fire suppression and grazing are leading to increases in woody density. In addition, the higher soil P availability in the Gran Chaco and the higher N deposition in North American savannas may be contributing to increases of N cycling and net productivity rates. Some aspects of the N budget for savannas of the American continent are still unclear and require further analysis to determine rates of N fixation, and to understand how spatial and temporal soil heterogeneity control N fluxes through soil solution and into streams.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Luiz Martinelli (CENA, University of São Paulo) and Dr. Bob Howarth (Cornell University) for the organization of the workshop “N fluxes and processes in tropical and temperate systems” (Ubatuba, 15–18th March 2003) that motivated the preparation of this manuscript. We are grateful to Dr. Eric Davidson (Woods Hole Research Center), Dr. Daniel Markewitz (University of Georgia) and the reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions. G. Asner and M. Bustamante were supported by NASA LBA grant NCC5–675 (LC-21).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    M.M.C. Bustamante

  2. Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela

    E. Medina

  3. Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    G.P. Asner

  4. Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    G.B. Nardoto

  5. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    D.C. Garcia-Montiel

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  1. M.M.C. Bustamante
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  5. D.C. Garcia-Montiel
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Correspondence to M.M.C. Bustamante.

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Bustamante, M., Medina, E., Asner, G. et al. Nitrogen cycling in tropical and temperate savannas. Biogeochemistry 79, 209–237 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-006-9006-x

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