Abstract
Nitrogen gas loss from terrestrial ecosystems is the most poorly quantified component of the global nitrogen cycle1–3. Particularly little is known about gas losses from tropical rain forests, which may be an especially important source of nitrogen gases worldwide3,4, and one that is changing rapidly because of tropical deforestation. Here we report measurements of denitrification (N2+ N2O production), an important mechanism of nitrogen loss in most ecosystems5–7, at a set of sites in Central America. Measurements were made to determine whether nitrogen gas loss is related to the successional status of rain-forest vegetation. Denitrification is high in primary forest and early successional sites and substantially lower in mid-successional sites. This implies that denitrification can be a major route of nitrogen loss from recently cleared and primary forest sites, and that global denitrification losses from humid tropical regions today are probably much smaller than losses in pre-colonial times, when a smaller proportion of sites were in mid-successional growth phases.
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Robertson, G., Tiedje, J. Deforestation alters denitrification in a lowland tropical rain forest. Nature 336, 756–759 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/336756a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/336756a0
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