Journal article
Drivers of foliar 15N trends in southern China over the last century
Global change biology, Vol.28(18), pp.5441-5452
09/2022
PMID: 35653265
Web of Science ID: WOS:000812908800001
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Abstract
Foliar stable nitrogen (N) isotopes (delta N-15) generally reflect N availability to plants and have been used to infer about changes thereof. However, previous studies of temporal trends in foliar delta N-15 have ignored the influence of confounding factors, leading to uncertainties on its indication to N availability. In this study, we measured foliar delta N-15 of 1811 herbarium specimens from 12 plant species collected in southern China forests from 1920 to 2010. We explored how changes in atmospheric CO2, N deposition and global warming have affected foliar delta N-15 and N concentrations ([N]) and identified whether N availability decreased in southern China. Across all species, foliar delta N-15 significantly decreased by 0.82 parts per thousand over the study period. However, foliar [N] did not decrease significantly, implying N homeostasis in forest trees in the region. The spatiotemporal patterns of foliar delta N-15 were explained by mean annual temperature (MAT), atmospheric CO2 (PCO2$$ {\mathrm{P}}_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2} $$), atmospheric N deposition, and foliar [N]. The spatiotemporal trends of foliar [N] were explained by MAT, temperature seasonality, PCO2$$ {\mathrm{P}}_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2} $$, and N deposition. N deposition within the rates from 5.3 to 12.6 kg N ha(-1) year(-1) substantially contributed to the temporal decline in foliar delta N-15. The decline in foliar delta N-15 was not accompanied by changes in foliar [N] and therefore does not necessarily reflect a decline in N availability. This is important to understand changes in N availability, which is essential to validate and parameterize biogeochemical cycles of N.
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Details
- Title
- Drivers of foliar 15N trends in southern China over the last century
- Publication Details
- Global change biology, Vol.28(18), pp.5441-5452
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- GML2019ZD0408 / Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory 41771522 / National Natural Science Foundation of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
- Copyright
- © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
- Identifiers
- WOS:000812908800001; 99380167896206600
- Academic Unit
- Biology; Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English