Modelling nitrogen saturation and carbon accumulation in heathland soils under elevated nitrogen deposition [An article from: Environmental Pollution]

This digital document is a journal article from Environmental Pollution, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
A simple model of nitrogen (N) saturation, based on an extension of the biogeochemical model MAGIC, has been tested at two long-running heathland N manipulation experiments. The model simulates N immobilisation as a function of organic soil C/N ratio, but permits a proportion of immobilised N to be accompanied by accumulation of soil carbon (C), slowing the rate of C/N ratio change and subsequent N saturation. The model successfully reproduced observed treatment effects on soil C and N, and inorganic N leaching, for both sites. At the C-rich upland site, N addition led to relatively small reductions in soil C/N, low inorganic N leaching, and a substantial increase in organic soil C. At the C-poor lowland site, soil C/N ratio decreases and N leaching increases were much more dramatic, and soil C accumulation predicted to be smaller. The study suggests that (i) a simple model can effectively simulate observed changes in soil and leachate N; (ii) previous model predictions based on a constant soil C pool may overpredict future N leaching; (iii) N saturation may develop most rapidly in dry, organic-poor, high-decomposition systems; and (iv) N deposition may lead to significantly enhanced soil C sequestration, particularly in wet, nutrient-poor, organic-rich systems.