Successional changes in soil and hyporheic nitrogen fertility on an alluvial flood plain: implications for riparian vegetation |
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| Authors: | Michael R Morris Brook O Brouwer Jeremy K Caves Mary J Harner Jack A Stanford |
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| Institution: | (1) Flathead Lake Biological Station, Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Montana, 32125 Bio Station Lane, Polson, MT 59860, USA;(2) Department of Biology, The Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO 80946, USA;(3) Department of Biology, University of Nebraska, Kearney, Kearney, NE 68849, USA; |
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| Abstract: | In floodplain primary succession, vegetation colonizes nitrogen-poor alluvial deposits and fertility improves as soil nitrogen
accumulates over time. It is generally assumed that vegetation assimilates the vast majority of its nitrogen from the soil;
however, recent studies have suggested that the hyporheic zone also may be an important nitrogen source. We investigated the
potential relative importance of hyporheic nitrogen by comparing fertility indices, specifically total (TN), dissolved inorganic
(DIN), potentially mineralizable (PMN) and ion exchange resin nitrogen (IERN) in both soils and the hyporheic zone at early,
mid and late succession stands on an expansive river flood plain. We also constructed mesocosms to assess growth of cottonwood
cuttings with access to soil and/or hyporheic water. We found TN and PMN increased from early to mid succession in both the
soil (to 10 cm) and hyporheic zone (in a 10 cm layer). While TN, DIN and PMN were an order of magnitude higher in the soil
than in the hyporheic zone, IERN was higher in the hyporheic zone, indicating that subsurface flow through the flood plain
may be important in delivering nitrogen to the root zone. However, even when flux was added to the hyporheic PMN pool, nitrogen
availability in the hyporheic zone (in a 10 cm layer) was vastly lower than soil PMN (to 10 cm). Further, the instantaneous
standing stock of DIN in the surface soil alone was about equal to the sum of the DIN pool, the mean subsurface flux and the
PMN pool in a 10 cm layer of hyporheic zone. In the mesocosm experiment, cottonwood cuttings with access to both soil and
hyporheic water grew fastest; however, they also had the lowest foliar nitrogen concentrations, indicating that this was not
due to greater nitrogen availability. In the field, nitrogen content of cottonwood foliage increased along with soil (but
potentially hyporheic as well) nitrogen accumulation during succession, suggesting the vegetation responded to increasing
nitrogen fertility. We conclude that at least on a per unit-volume basis, the hyporheic zone probably provides little nitrogen
relative to the surface soil, except on new alluvial bars that characteristically are nitrogen poor. Therefore, the hyporheic
zone is probably a much smaller nitrogen source for mature forests relative to the surface soil unless the vegetation exploits
a much larger volume of the hyporheic zone than surface soil. |
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