Nature 415, 416–419 (2002).
In this Letter we reported that hydrologic export of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) dominates over nitrate in unpolluted old-growth forests across southern Chile and Argentina, but that the reverse pattern occurs in old-growth forests exposed to chronically high rates of nitrogen deposition in eastern North America. As a note of clarification, however, we feel it is useful to point out that, depending on conditions, second-growth forests (that is, those that have been previously logged) can display various patterns of nitrogen loss, including dominance of DON over nitrate1,2 in cases where forest regrowth and detritus accumulation exert strong and well-known demands on internal nitrate supply3,4,5,6. But these forests were not included in our analysis, given that their nitrogen cycles are influenced by historically complex interactions between nitrogen deposition and land use and so do not represent an appropriate comparison to the old-growth forests investigated in South America.
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Perakis, S., Hedin, L. addendum: Nitrogen loss from unpolluted South American forests mainly via dissolved organic compounds. Nature 418, 665 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00959
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00959
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