Letter abstract
Nature Geoscience 1, 767 - 770 (2008)
Published online: 2 November 2008 | doi:10.1038/ngeo339
Subject Categories: Ecology | Biogeochemistry
Negative impact of nitrogen deposition on soil buffering capacity
William D. Bowman1,
Cory C. Cleveland2,
ubo
Halada3,
Juraj Hreko3
&
Jill S. Baron4
Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition over the past half century has had a detrimental impact on temperate ecosystems in Europe and North America, resulting in soil acidification and a reduction in plant biodiversity1, 2. During the acidification process, soils release base cations, such as calcium and magnesium, neutralizing the increase in acidity. Once these base cations have been depleted, aluminium is released from the soils, often reaching toxic levels. Here, we present results from a nitrogen deposition experiment that suggests that a long legacy of acid deposition in the Western Tatra Mountains of Slovakia has pushed soils to a new threshold of acidification usually associated with acid mine drainage soils. We show that increases in nitrogen deposition in the region result in a depletion of both base cations and soluble aluminium, and an increase in extractable iron concentrations. In conjunction with this, we observe a nitrogen-deposition-induced reduction in the biomass of vascular plants, associated with a decrease in shoot calcium and magnesium concentrations. We suggest that this site, and potentially others in central Europe, have reached a new and potentially more toxic level of soil acidification in which aluminium release is superseded by iron release into soil water.
- Mountain Research Station, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450, USA
- Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812, USA
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Akademicka 2, PO Box 23 B, Nitra, SK-949 01, Slovak Republic
- US Geological Survey, Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA
Correspondence to: William D. Bowman1 e-mail: william.bowman@colorado.edu
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