Forest Sciences Commons^™

Soil Denitrification Fluxes From Three Northeastern North American Forests Across A Range Of Nitrogen Deposition, Jennifer Morse, Jorge Durán, Fred Beall, Eric Enanga, Irena Creed, Ivan Fernandez, Peter Groffman

Ivan J. Fernandez

In northern forests, large amounts of missing N that dominate N balances at scales ranging from small watersheds to large regional drainage basins may be related to N-gas production by soil microbes. We measured denitrification rates in forest soils in northeastern North America along a N deposition gradient to determine whether N-gas fluxes were a significant fate for atmospheric N inputs and whether denitrification rates were correlated with N availability, soil O2 status, or forest type. We quantified N2 and N2O fluxes in the laboratory with an intact-core method and monitored soil O2, temperature and moisture in three forests differing …