Nitrogen transport in a tundra landscape : the effects of early and late growing season lateral N inputs on arctic soil and plant N pools and N₂O fluxes

Summary, in English

Understanding N budgets of tundra ecosystems is crucial for projecting future changes in plant community composition, greenhouse gas balances and soil N stocks. Winter warming can lead to higher tundra winter nitrogen (N) mineralization rates, while summer warming may increase both growing season N mineralization and plant N demand. The undulating tundra landscape is inter-connected through water and solute movement on top of and within near-surface soil, but the importance of lateral N fluxes for tundra N budgets is not well known. We studied the size of lateral N fluxes and the fate of lateral N input in the snowmelt period with a shallow thaw layer, and in the late growing season with a deeper thaw layer. We used ¹⁵N to trace inorganic lateral N movement in a Low-arctic mesic tundra heath slope in West Greenland and to quantify the fate of N in the receiving area. We found that half of the early-season lateral N input was retained by the receiving ecosystem, whereas half was transported downslope. Plants appear as poor utilizers of early-season N, indicating that higher winter N mineralization may influence plant growth and carbon (C) sequestration less than expected. Still, evergreen plants were better at utilizing early-season N, highlighting how changes in N availability may impact plant community composition. In contrast, later growing season lateral N input was deeper and offered an advantage to deeper-rooted deciduous plants. The measurements suggest that N input driven by future warming at the study site will have no significant impact on the overall N₂O emissions. Our work underlines how tundra ecosystem N allocation, C budgets and plant community composition vary in their response to lateral N inputs, which may help us understand future responses in a warmer Arctic.

• Författare: Laura H. Rasmussen; Wenxin Zhang; Per Ambus; Anders Michelsen; Per Erik Jansson; Barbara Kitzler; Bo Elberling
• Avdelning/ar: Institutionen för naturgeografi och ekosystemvetenskap; BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate; MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
• Publiceringsår: 2022
• Språk: Engelska
• Sidor: 69-84
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: Biogeochemistry
• Volym: 157
• Issue: 1
• Länkar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00855-y
• Dokumenttyp: Artikel i tidskrift
• Förlag: Springer
• Ämne: Ecology; Climate Research; Soil Science
• Nyckelord: Arctic tundra; Climate change; Nitrate; Solute transport; Winter N mineralization
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt: ISSN: 0168-2563