Engineering Commons^™

Shift Towards P Limitation With N Deposition?, K. F. Crowley, B. E. Mcneil, G. M. Lovett, C. D. Canham, C. T. Driscoll

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is altering biogeochemical cycling in forests and interconnected lakes of the northeastern US, and may shift nutrient limitation from N toward other essential elements, such as phosphorus (P). Whether this shift is occurring relative to N deposition gradients across the northeastern US has not been investigated. We used datasets for the northeastern US and the Adirondack sub-region to evaluate whether P limitation is increasing where N deposition is high at two geographic scales, based on N:P mass ratios. Using a model- selection approach, we determined that foliar N for dominant tree species and lake dissolved inorganic …