Mixed afforestations of young subtropical trees promote nitrogen acquisition and retention
Afforestation is globally increasing to produce timber and pulp wood, but also to enhance ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, nutrient retention or groundwater recharge. In China, large areas have been and will be afforested in order to compensate for the negative impacts of former clear-cuttings and to make use of the ecosystem services associated with afforestation. In order to further optimize these services with regard to balanced nutrient (particularly nitrogen) cycles, it is important to know whether the use of mixtures of native tree species in afforestation projects promotes the acquisition and retention of nitrogen compared with the currently established large-scale monocultures.
To test the effect of species richness on system N retention and tree sapling N uptake, we conducted a 15N tracer experiment in a young tree plantation. To this end, saplings of four abundant early successional tree species were planted in monocultures, in two- and four-species mixtures and as single trees.
Nitrogen retention increased with higher species richness due to enhanced N pools in sapling biomass. These species richness effects strengthened over time.
Species-specific differences in 15N recoveries over time revealed below-ground niche differentiation with regard to N uptake, which is likely to result in complementary resource use among coexisting species.
Synthesis and applications. This study provides evidence that mixed afforestation promotes N retention from the sapling stage. To further improve ecosystem services associated with afforestation, we strongly suggest the use of mixtures of native tree species instead of monocultures. Mixtures of four species may reduce system N losses and thus may lessen groundwater contamination due to N leaching. We encourage further investigations to find optimal species combinations that promote a wide range of ecosystem services related to more closed nutrient cycles and minimized soil erosion. In our study, the plantations' capability to retain N could be optimized by means of both increasing tree species richness and by choosing the optimal species combinations.
2013-09-16 18:48:04 UTC
final
SP02e Individual plant growth and branch demography as a function of species richness and composition
Anne Lang
anne_christina.lang@uni-leipzig.de
Goddert von Oheimb
Goddert_v_Oheimb@tu-dresden.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Keping Ma, Prof.
kpma@ibcas.ac.cn
Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Prof.
michael.scherer@biologie.uni-freiburg.de
Bo Yang
yangbomvp@gmail.com
Stefan Trogisch, Dr.
stefan.trogisch@botanik.uni-halle.de
Werner Härdtle, Prof.
werner.haerdtle@leuphana.de
Pilot experiment: tree sapling competition- system 15N retention
main
true
Anne Lang
anne_christina.lang@uni-leipzig.de
Werner Härdtle, Prof.
werner.haerdtle@leuphana.de
Goddert von Oheimb
Goddert_v_Oheimb@tu-dresden.de
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/335/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/335/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Pilot experiment: plot treatment and -location within the blocks
main
true
Martin Baruffol
martin.baruffol@gmail.com
Martin Böhnke
martin.boehnke@botanik.uni-halle.de
Sabine Both
sabine.both@botanik.uni-halle.de
Matteo Brezzi
matteo.brezzi@ieu.uzh.ch
Anne Lang
anne_christina.lang@uni-leipzig.de
Juliana Nates Jimenez
juliana.nates@ieu.uzh.ch
Ricarda Pohl
pohl.ricarda@gmail.com
Yann Salmon
yann.salmon@helsinki.fi
Karin Nadrowski
nadrowski@uni-leipzig.de
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/102/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/102/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Pilot experiment: tree sapling 15N recovery in leaves and fine roots
main
true
Anne Lang
anne_christina.lang@uni-leipzig.de
Werner Härdtle, Prof.
werner.haerdtle@leuphana.de
Goddert von Oheimb
Goddert_v_Oheimb@tu-dresden.de
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/334/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/334/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Lang, A. C., Oheimb, G., Scherer‐Lorenzen, M., Yang, B., Trogisch, S., Bruelheide, H., ... & Haerdtle, W. (2014). Mixed afforestation of young subtropical trees promotes nitrogen acquisition and retention. Journal of Applied Ecology, 51(1), 224-233.
2013-09-20
accepted