NDLI: Spring ephemeral herbs and nitrogen cycling in a northern hardwood forest: an experimental test of the vernal dam hypothesis

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Rothstein, D. E.
Copyright Year	2000
Abstract	In the late 1970s R.N. Muller and F.H. Bormann posited their ”vernal dam” hypothesis, stating that spring-ephemeral herbs in deciduous forests serve as a temporary sink for N when overstory trees are dormant, and then release this N later, in the summer, when the trees are active. This hypothesis has gained wide acceptance, yet two of its critical assumptions have never been experimentally tested: (1) that N taken up by spring ephemerals would otherwise be lost from the ecosystem, and (2) that N from senesced ephemeral tissues contributes to increased rates of summertime N mineralization. To test these assumptions, I quantified patterns of N cycling and loss from a set of paired plots, half of which served as controls and from half of which all spring-ephemeral plants were removed. There were no significant differences in NO3 – leaching between plots with and without spring ephemeral vegetation. These results are consistent with the relatively low rates of N uptake by the dominant spring ephemeral, Allium tricoccum, and its apparent preference for NH4 +, which is far less mobile in soil than NO3 –. In addition, based on sequential sampling, I found that soil microorganisms took up 8 times as much N during the spring than did spring-ephemeral herbs (microbial uptake=3.19 vs. plant uptake=0.41 g N m–2), suggesting that microbial immobilization of N is the dominant sink for N during this season. Removal of spring ephemeral vegetation also had no effect on summertime rates of net N mineralization. Furthermore, the addition of spring ephemeral litter to soil+forest floor microcosms did not significantly increase rates of N mineralization in a laboratory incubation. Instead, this experiment demonstrated the overwhelming influence of forest floor litter in controlling the release of mineral N from these soils. Overall, neither assumption of the vernal dam hypothesis holds true in this ecosystem, where patterns of N cycling and loss appear to be dominated by microbial decomposition of forest floor material and soil organic matter.
Starting Page	446
Ending Page	453
Page Count	8
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00298549
Journal	Oecologia
Volume Number	124
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	14321939
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2000-08-23
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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