Nitrogen critical loads for alpine vegetation and soils in Rocky Mountain National Park

Bowman, William D.; Murgel, John; Blett, Tamara; Porter, Ellen

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.03.002

Cited by 85 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Consistent with previous studies (Bowman et al 2012;Contosta et al 2011;Wei et al 2013), external N input increased soil inorganic N concentrations, but the effects varied with years ( Fig. 6).…”

Section: Soil Responses To N Enrichmentsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The response function for the change in vegetation cover per year versus the N deposition rate was estimated using a polynomial dose response curve, with the x-intercept providing the N critical load for vegetation change (Bowman et al 2006(Bowman et al , 2012. We estimated the N critical load for changes in vegetation cover or biomass as the N deposition rate below which no significant increase in cover or biomass of each functional group would occur, while above which the cover or biomass of vegetation increased.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Critical loads, which have been widely used by environmentalists to assess the impacts of pollutants on ecosystems, are generally defined as the minimum input of a pollutant that causes a significant ''harmful effect'' on a sensitive ecological indicator (Bobbink and Roelofs 1995;Bowman et al 2006Bowman et al , 2012Porter et al 2005). The N critical load for changes in vegetation is defined as the N input level below which no biotic change (such as plant cover, biomass, or species composition) would occur (Bowman et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…N saturation is defined by Aber et al (1989) as the point when ammonium and nitrate availability exceed plant and microbial nitrogen demand. Indicators of N saturation have been documented by soil-based measures, including changes in N mineralization, nitrification, and NO 3 --N leaching rates (Aber et al 1989;Bowman et al 2006;Lovett and Goodale 2011;Pardo et al 2011), or changes in sensitive biota, such as plant community composition (Bowman et al 2006(Bowman et al , 2012Lovett and Goodale 2011). Previous studies showed that plant diversity and soil characteristics would respond nonlinearly to multi-level N additions (Wei et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nitrogen Critical Loads for an Alpine Meadow Ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau

Zong

Shi

Song

et al. 2015

Environmental Management

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Increasing atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has the potential to alter plant diversity and thus the function and stability of terrestrial ecosystems. N-limited alpine ecosystems are expected to be particularly susceptible to increasing N deposition. However, little is known about the critical loads and saturation thresholds of ecosystem responses to increasing N deposition on the Tibetan Plateau, despite its importance to ecosystem management. To evaluate the N critical loads and N saturation thresholds in an alpine ecosystem, in 2010, we treated an alpine meadow with five levels of N addition (0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 kg N ha -1 year -1 ) and characterized plant and soil responses. The results showed that plant species richness and diversity index did not statistically vary with N addition treatments, but they both changed with years. N addition affected plant cover and aboveground productivity, especially for grasses, and soil chemical features. The N critical loads and saturation thresholds, in terms of plant cover and biomass change at the community level, were 8.8-12.7 and 50 kg N ha -1 -year -1 (including the ambient N deposition rate), respectively. However, pronounced changes in soil inorganic N and net N mineralization occurred under the 20 and 40 kg N ha -1 year -1 treatments. Our results indicate that plant community cover and biomass are more sensitive than soil to increasing N inputs. The plant community composition in alpine ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau may change under increasing N deposition in the future.

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Section: Soil Responses To N Enrichmentsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Nitrogen Critical Loads for an Alpine Meadow Ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau

Zong

Shi

Song

et al. 2015

Environmental Management

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“…The distinctive points related to studies of changes affecting the alpine environments (Cannone, Pignatti 2014;) can be seen especially in uncertainties in the roles of soil biomass, carbon (Bradshaw et al 2015) and nitrogen (Qi et al 2011) controlled by local climate oscillations , interrelationships between the microrefuges and the local geomorphology (D' Amico et al 2014;Gentili et al 2015) and synergic effects that reinforce these processes (Smith-McKenna et al 2014). The usefulness of local studies focused on distinctive reasons (Anderson et al 2011;Bowman et al 2012) is also indisputable. Díaz-Varela et al (2010) described a novel procedure to delineate the current and former state of ecotones of alpine phytocoenoses which was tested in the Italian Alps for the period showing a trend of an increase in altitude for the ecotones scrutinized.…”

Section: The Periglacial Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts on the Alpine ecosystem: an overview with focus on the soil

Chersich¹,

Rejšek²,

Vranová³

et al. 2015

J. For. Sci.

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ABSTRACT:The Alpine ecosystem is very sensitive to climatic changes, which have an influence on glaciers, snow, vegetation and soils. The aim of this review is to illustrate the effects of global change on the Alpine soil ecosystem, which is an optimal marker to record them. The manuscript enhances our understanding of the global change effect on the Alpine environment: on morphology, on ice, on vegetation and points out how the cycles of soil nutrients equilibrium have been changed with a direct effect on soils that support plant species. The changes in cryosphere, glacier reduction and periglacial environment as glaciers retreat, decrease in the snow cover extent and earlier snowmelt, determine an effect on soils (on the structure, organic matter and humus forms, soil processes and soil types) from the top of the Alpine horizon to the bottom. The processes induced by climate change (such as erosion and tree line shifting) have a direct effect on water balance that can be observed on soil profile characters with an effect on upward migration, change in phenology, extensive losses of species. The equilibrium of the biogeochemical cycles has been changed and this has a direct effect on soils that support plant species.

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Experimentally derived nitrogen critical loads for northern Great Plains vegetation

Symstad

Smith

Newton

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

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The critical load concept facilitates communication between scientists and policy makers and land managers by translating the complex effects of air pollution on ecosystems into unambiguous numbers that can be used to inform air quality targets. Anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition adversely affects a variety of ecosystems, but the information used to derive critical loads for North American ecosystems is sparse and often based on experiments investigating N loads substantially higher than current or expected atmospheric deposition. In a 4‐yr field experiment in the northern Great Plains (NGP) of North America, where current N deposition levels range from ~3 to 9 kg N·ha−1·yr−1, we added 12 levels of N, from 2.5 to 100 kg N·ha−1·yr−1, to three sites spanning a range of soil fertility and productivity. Our results suggest a conservative critical load of 4–6 kg N·ha−1·yr−1 for the most sensitive vegetation type we investigated, badlands sparse vegetation, a community that supports plant species adapted to low fertility conditions, where N addition at this rate increased productivity and litter load. In contrast, for the two more productive vegetation types characteristic of most NGP grasslands, a critical load of 6–10 kg N·ha−1·yr−1 was identified. Here, N addition at this level altered plant tissue chemistry and increased nonnative species. These critical loads are below the currently suggested range of 10–25 kg N·ha−1·yr−1 for NGP vegetation and within the range of current or near‐future deposition, suggesting that N deposition may already be inducing fundamental changes in NGP ecosystems.

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Nitrogen critical loads for alpine vegetation and soils in Rocky Mountain National Park

Cited by 85 publications

References 47 publications

Nitrogen Critical Loads for an Alpine Meadow Ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau

Nitrogen Critical Loads for an Alpine Meadow Ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau

Climate change impacts on the Alpine ecosystem: an overview with focus on the soil

Experimentally derived nitrogen critical loads for northern Great Plains vegetation

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