scholarly journals Nitrogen Fertilization Increases Windstorm Damage in an Aggrading Forest

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 443
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Walter ◽  
Zachariah K. Fowler ◽  
Mary Beth Adams ◽  
Mark B. Burnham ◽  
Brenden E. McNeil ◽  
...  

Storms are the most significant disturbance events in temperate forests. Forests impacted by nitrogen deposition may face more severe storm damage as changes in soil and wood chemistry impact tree growth allocation, wood strength, and species composition. To examine these potential effects of nitrogen deposition, we measured tree damage from a windstorm in an aggrading forest that is part of a nitrogen fertilization experiment. We discovered that within the nitrogen fertilization treatment area there was significantly more basal area and stems damaged when compared to the reference treatment, and the nitrogen fertilization treatment had more snapped and severely damaged trees. Additionally, the effect of treatment and amount of damage to trees was different depending on tree species. If our results are indicative of the large and globally-distributed regions of temperate forests impacted by nitrogen deposition, then the increased windstorm disturbance risk posed by climate change could be more significant due to the effects of nitrogen deposition.

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-150
Author(s):  
L. E. Nelson ◽  
G. L. Switzer

Abstract Nine-year-old planted sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) consisting of four half-sib seed sources were refertilized with nitrogen in 1981 at the beginning of the tenth field-growing season. Increases in periodic annual height, diameter at breast height, basal area, stem volume (ob),and woody biomass increments of all four half-sib seed sources from applied nitrogen were observed during the 9 years following application. Periodic annual stem volume (ob) increments averaged over all half-sib seed sources were 120, 152, 192, and 266 ft³/ac/yr for the 0, 89, 178, and356 lb/ac N rates, respectively. The half-sib seed sources from alluvial sites were superior to those from upland sites in terms of productivity and response to N. The response of all half-sibs to N was immediate, occurring during the year of application; however, the increased growth ratesdue to N persisted for only 3 years. This suggests that on responsive sites, applications of N may be necessary every fourth year to maintain maximum growth rates. South. J. Appl. For. 16(3):146-150.


Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juhan Park ◽  
Hyun Seok Kim ◽  
Hyun Kook Jo ◽  
II Bin Jung

Research Highlights: Using a long-term dataset on temperate forests in South Korea, we established the interrelationships between tree species and structural diversity and forest productivity and stability, and identified a strong, positive effect of structural diversity, rather than tree species diversity, on productivity and stability. Background and Objectives: Globally, species diversity is positively related with forest productivity. However, temperate forests often show a negative or neutral relationship. In those forests, structural diversity, instead of tree species diversity, could control the forest function. Materials and Methods: This study tested the effects of tree species and structural diversity on temperate forest productivity. The basal area increment and relative changes in stand density were used as proxies for forest productivity and stability, respectively. Results: Here we show that structural diversity, but not species diversity, had a significant, positive effect on productivity, whereas species diversity had a negative effect, despite a positive effect on diversity. Structural diversity also promoted fewer changes in stand density between two periods, whereas species diversity showed no such relation. Structurally diverse forests might use resources efficiently through increased canopy complexity due to canopy plasticity. Conclusions: These results indicate reported species diversity effects could be related to structural diversity. They also highlight the importance of managing structurally diverse forests to improve productivity and stability in stand density, which may promote sustainability of forests.


2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 862-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Alexander Elvir ◽  
G Bruce Wiersma ◽  
Alan S White ◽  
Ivan J Fernandez

Responses in basal area increment (BAI) of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) and red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) to chronic ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4) treatment were examined at the Bear Brook Watershed in Maine. The Bear Brook Watershed is a pair-watershed forest ecosystem study with West Bear watershed treated with (NH4)2SO4 at a rate of 1800 equiv.·ha–1·year–1 since 1989, while East Bear watershed serves as a reference. Following 10 years of treatment, BAI was significantly higher for sugar maple trees growing in the treated watershed, with yearly increases relative to the reference watershed ranging from 13% in 1999 to 104% in 1996. The increase in sugar maple radial growth was attributed to a fertilization effect from the (NH4)2SO4 treatment. A reduction in BAI in sugar maple growing in the treated watershed observed in 1998 and 1999 was attributed to internal stresses and growth allocation to crown recovery after the severe 1998 ice storm. Red spruce showed no BAI growth responses to the treatment. Lower foliar Mg and Ca concentrations in red spruce in the treated watershed and lower soil responses to N enrichment in treated softwood stands compared with treated hardwood stands could explain the lack of BAI response in red spruce.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (23) ◽  
pp. 17743-17758
Author(s):  
Xueying Liu ◽  
Amos P. K. Tai ◽  
Ka Ming Fung

Abstract. With the rising food demands from the future world population, more intense agricultural activities are expected to cause substantial perturbations to the global nitrogen cycle, aggravating surface air pollution and imposing stress on terrestrial ecosystems. Much less studied, however, is how the terrestrial ecosystem changes induced by agricultural nitrogen deposition may modify biosphere–atmosphere exchange and further exert secondary feedback effects on global air quality. Here we examined the responses of surface ozone air quality to terrestrial ecosystem changes caused by year 2000 to year 2050 changes in agricultural ammonia emissions and the subsequent nitrogen deposition by asynchronously coupling between the land and atmosphere components within the Community Earth System Model framework. We found that global gross primary production is enhanced by 2.1 Pg C yr−1, following a 20 % (20 Tg N yr−1) increase in global nitrogen deposition by the end of the year 2050 in response to rising agricultural ammonia emissions. Leaf area index was simulated to be higher by up to 0.3–0.4 m2 m−2 over most tropical grasslands and croplands and 0.1–0.2 m2 m−2 across boreal and temperate forests at midlatitudes. Around 0.1–0.4 m increases in canopy height were found in boreal and temperate forests, and there were ∼0.1 m increases in tropical grasslands and croplands. We found that these vegetation changes could lead to surface ozone changes by ∼0.5 ppbv (part per billion by volume) when prescribed meteorology was used (i.e., large-scale meteorological responses to terrestrial changes were not allowed), while surface ozone could typically be modified by 2–3 ppbv when meteorology was dynamically simulated in response to vegetation changes. Rising soil NOx emissions, from 7.9 to 8.7 Tg N yr−1, could enhance surface ozone by 2–3 ppbv with both prescribed and dynamic meteorology. We, thus, conclude that, following enhanced nitrogen deposition, the modification of the meteorological environment induced by vegetation changes and soil biogeochemical changes are the more important pathways that can modulate future ozone pollution, representing a novel linkage between agricultural activities and ozone air quality.


1979 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Ross ◽  
Edward Buckner ◽  
Harold Core ◽  
Frank Woods

Abstract The effects of nitrogen fertilization on the relative wood density and growth of yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) were studied over two growth periods. Transmitted gamma rays were used to measure relative wood density. A small but significant decrease in relative wood density was accompanied by diameter, height, basal area, and cubic volume increases of much greater magnitude. These results suggest a small wood quality loss relative to the volume gain from nitrogen fertilization of yellow-poplar on deficient sites.


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