Abstract
Within a long-term research project studying the biogeochemical budget of an oak-beech forest ecosystem in the eastern part of the Netherlands, the nitrogen transformations and solute fluxes were determined in order to trace the fate of atmospherically deposited NH4 + and to determine the contribution of nitrogen transformations to soil acidification.
The oak-beech forest studied received an annual input of nitrogen via throughfall and stemflow of 45 kg N ha−1 yr−1, mainly as NH4 +, whereas 8 kg N ha−1 yr−1 was taken up by the canopy. Due to the specific hydrological regime resulting in periodically occurring high groundwater levels, denitrification was found to be the dominant output flux (35 kg N ha−1 yr−1). N20 emmission rate measurements indicated that 57% of this gaseous nitrogen loss (20 kg N ha−1 yr−1) was as N2O. The forest lost an annual amount of 11 kg N ha−1 yr−1 via streamwater output, mainly as N03 −.
Despite the acid conditions, high nitrification rates were measured. Nitrification occurred mainly in the litter layer and in the organic rich part of the mineral soil and was found to be closely correlated with soil temperature. The large amount of NH4 + deposited on the forest floor via atmospheric deposition and produced by mineralization was to a large extent nitrified in the litter layer. Almost no NH4 + reached the subsurface soil horizons. The N03 − was retained, taken up or transformed mainly in the mineral soil. A small amount of N03 − (9 kg N ha−1 yr−1) was removed from the system in streamwater output. A relatively small amount of nitrogen was measured in the soil water as Dissolved Organic Nitrogen.
On the basis of these data the proton budget of the system was calculated using two different approaches. In both cases net proton production rates were high in the vegetation and in the litter layer of the forest ecosystem. Nitrogen transformations induced a net proton production rate of 2.4 kmol ha−1 yr−1 in the soil compartment.
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Tietema, A., Verstraten, J.M. Nitrogen cycling in an acid forest ecosystem in the Netherlands under increased atmospheric nitrogen input. Biogeochemistry 15, 21–46 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00002807
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00002807