Abstract
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central Europe, have reached a new and potentially more toxic level of soil acidification in which aluminium release is superseded by iron release into soil water.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Galloway, J. N. et al. The nitrogen cascade. Bioscience 53, 341–356 (2003).
Likens, G. E., Driscoll, C. T. & Buso, D. C. Long-term effects of acid rain: Response and recovery of a forest ecosystem. Science 272, 244–246 (1996).
Stoddard, J. L. et al. Regional trends in aquatic recovery from acidification in North America and Europe. Nature 401, 575–578 (1999).
Wright, R. F. et al. Trends in nitrogen deposition and leaching in acid-sensitive streams in Europe. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 5, 299–310 (2001).
Williams, M. W., Baron, J. S., Caine, N., Sommerfeld, R. & Sanford, R. Nitrogen saturation in the Rocky Mountains. Environ. Sci. Tech. 30, 640–646 (1996).
Curtis, C. J. et al. Acidification in European mountain lake districts: A regional assessment of critical load exceedence. Aquat. Sci. 67, 237–251 (2005).
van Breemen, N., Mulder, J. & Driscoll, C. T. Acidification and alkalization of soils. Plant Soil 75, 283–308 (1983).
Bergkvist, B. O. & Folkeson, L. Soil acidification and element fluxes of a Fagus sylvatica forest as influenced by simulated nitrogen deposition. Wat. Air Soil Pollut. 65, 111–133 (1992).
Blake, L., Goulding, K. W. T., Mott, C. J. B. & Johnston, A. E. Changes in soil chemistry accompanying acidification over more than 100 years under woodland and grass at Rothamsted Experimental Station, UK. Eur. J. Soil Sci. 50, 401–412 (1999).
Friedland, A. J. & Miller, E. K. Major element cycling in a high elevation Adirondack forest: Patterns and changes 1986–1996. Ecol. Appl. 9, 958–967 (1999).
DeHayes, D. H., Schaberg, P. G., Hawley, G. J. & Strimbeck, G. R. Acid rain impacts on calcium nutrition and forest health. Bioscience 49, 789–800 (1999).
Driscoll, C. T. et al. Acidic deposition in the northeastern United States: Sources and inputs, ecosystem effects, and management strategies. Bioscience 51, 180–198 (2001).
Ulrich, B. in Effects of Accumulation of Air Pollutants in Forest Ecosystems (eds Ulrich, B. & Pankrath, J.) (Reidel, 1983).
Karathanasis, A. D., Evangelou, V. P. & Thompson, Y. L. Aluminum and iron equilibria in soil solutions and surface waters of acid mine watersheds. J. Environ. Qual. 17, 534–543 (1988).
Kopáček, J., Veselý, J. & Stuchlík, E. Sulphur and nitrogen fluxes and budgets in the Bohemian Forest and Tatra Mountains during the Industrial Revolution. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 5, 391–405 (2001).
Dentener, F. et al. Nitrogen and sulfur deposition on regional and global scales: A multimodel evaluation. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 20, GB4003 (2006).
Stevens, C. J., Dise, N. B., Mountford, J. O. & Gowing, D. J. Impact of nitrogen deposition on the species richness of grasslands. Science 303, 1876–1879 (2004).
Mulder, J. & Stein, A. The solubility of aluminum in acidic forest soils: Long-term changes due to acid deposition. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 58, 85–94 (1994).
Kaňa, J. & Kopáček, J. Impact of soil sorption characteristics and bedrock composition on phosphorus concentrations in two Bohemian forest lakes. Wat. Air Soil Pollut. 173, 243–259 (2006).
Vitousek, P. M. & Howarth, R. W. Nitrogen limitation on land and in the sea: How can it occur? Biogeochemistry 13, 87–115 (1991).
Aber, J. et al. Nitrogen saturation in temperate forest ecosystems—Hypotheses revisited. Bioscience 48, 921–934 (1998).
Juice, S. M. et al. Response of sugar maple to calcium addition to Northern Hardwood Forest. Ecology 87, 1267–1280 (2006).
Marschner, H. Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants (Academic, 1995).
Delhaize, E. & Ryan, P. R. Aluminum toxicity and tolerance in plants. Plant Physiol. 107, 315–321 (1995).
Nguyen, N. T., Hiep, N. D. & Fujita, K. Iron enhances aluminum-induced leaf necrosis and plant growth inhibition in Eucalyptus camaldulensis. Plant Soil 277, 139–152 (2005).
Forsius, M., Kleemola, S., Vuorenmaa, J. & Syri, S. Fluxes and trends of nitrogen and sulphur compounds at integrated monitoring sites in Europe. Wat. Air Soil Pollut. 130, 1641–1648 (2001).
Driscoll, C. T., Likens, G. E. & Church, M. R. Recovery of surface waters in the northeastern US, from decreases in atmospheric deposition of sulfur. Wat. Air. Soil Pollut. 105, 319–329 (1998).
Bobbink, R., Ashmore, M., Braun, S., Fluckiger, W. & Van den Wyngaert, I. J. J. in Manual on Methodologies and Criteria for Mapping Critical Levels/Loads and Geographic Areas where they are Exceeded (eds Achermann, B. & Bobbink, R.) 43–170 (United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt), 2002).
Körner, Ch. & Spehn, E. Mountain Biodiversity: A Global Assessment (Parthenon, 2002).
Chadwick, O. A. & Chorover, J. The chemistry of pedogenic thresholds. Geoderma 100, 321–353 (2001).
Acknowledgements
We thank C. Meier, K. Suding, H. Steltzer, Z. Kostka, L. Holko, S. David, J. Sedláková, O. Plume, S. Desplaines, G. Bugar, M. Boltižiar, F. Petrovič, M. Mojses, F. Kohút and A. Darrouzet-Nardi for assistance with establishing the research plots and maintaining treatment applications. P. Fleischer kindly shared data on bulk deposition rates in the Tatra National Park. C. Driscoll assisted with interpretation of extractable soil cation data, and J. Holloway, J. Neff, C. Meier, I. Ashton, A. Darrouzet-Nardi, S. Reed, A. Townsend and K. Tea provided constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Financial support for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation (OISE-0112281) and the Slovak Academy of Sciences (INT-0112281 and VEGA 2/4132/04).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
W.D.B. determined the research plan, obtained financial support, participated in the field work, analysed the plant samples and wrote the paper. C.C.C. participated in field work, analysed the soil samples and contributed to the writing of the paper. L.H. obtained financial support and along with J.H. supervised the field crews maintaining the experiment and assisted with collection of plant and soil samples. J.S.B. assisted with interpretation of the results and contributed to the writing of the paper.
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bowman, W., Cleveland, C., Halada, Ĺ. et al. Negative impact of nitrogen deposition on soil buffering capacity. Nature Geosci 1, 767–770 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo339
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo339
This article is cited by
-
Trophic group specific responses of alpine nematode communities to 18 years of N addition and codominant plant removal
Plant and Soil (2024)
-
Warming and altered precipitation rarely alter N addition effects on soil greenhouse gas fluxes: a meta-analysis
Ecological Processes (2023)
-
Long-term intensive management reduced the soil quality of a Carya dabieshanensis forest
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Dauciform roots affect functional traits of Carex filispica under nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization in alpine meadow
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Sensitive tree species remain at risk despite improved air quality benefits to US forests
Nature Sustainability (2023)