Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
© The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Oecologia 168 (2012): 819-828, doi:10.1007/s00442-011-2133-7.
Description:
Global climate change is expected to affect
terrestrial ecosystems in a variety of ways. Some of the
more well-studied effects include the biogeochemical
feedbacks to the climate system that can either increase or
decrease the atmospheric load of greenhouse gases such
as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Less well-studied are
the effects of climate change on the linkages between soil
and plant processes. Here, we report the effects of soil
warming on these linkages observed in a large field
manipulation of a deciduous forest in southern New
England, USA, where soil was continuously warmed 5°C
above ambient for 7 years. Over this period, we have observed significant changes to the nitrogen cycle that
have the potential to affect tree species composition in the
long term. Since the start of the experiment, we have
documented a 45% average annual increase in net nitrogen
mineralization and a three-fold increase in nitrification
such that in years 5 through 7, 25% of the nitrogen
mineralized is then nitrified. The warming-induced
increase of available nitrogen resulted in increases in the
foliar nitrogen content and the relative growth rate of
trees in the warmed area. Acer rubrum (red maple) trees
have responded the most after 7 years of warming, with
the greatest increases in both foliar nitrogen content and
relative growth rates. Our study suggests that considering
species-specific responses to increases in nitrogen availability
and changes in nitrogen form is important in
predicting future forest composition and feedbacks to the
climate system.
Description:
This work was supported by the National Institute
for Climate Change Research (DOE-DE-FCO2-06-ER64157),
DOE BER (DE-SC0005421) and the Harvard Forest Long-Term
Ecological Research program (NSF-DEB-0620443).
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/msword
Format:
application/pdf
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