TY - JOUR

T1 - Conditional vulnerability of plant diversity to atmospheric nitrogen deposition across the United States

AU - Simkin, Samuel

AU - Allen, Edith

AU - Bowman, W. D.

AU - Clark, C.

AU - Belnap, Jayne

AU - Brooks, Matthew

AU - Cade, Brian

AU - Collins, Scott

AU - Geiser, Linda

AU - Gilliam, Frank

AU - Jovan, Sarah

AU - Pardo, Linda

AU - Schulz, Bethany

AU - Stevens, Carly Joanne

AU - Suding, Katherine

AU - Throop, Heather

AU - Waller, Donald

N1 - Copyright © 2016 National Academy of Sciences. Data deposition: The data reported in this article have been deposited in the Dryad Digital Repository, datadryad.org (doi: 10.5061/dryad.7kn53). This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1515241113/-/DCSupplemental.

PY - 2016/4/12

Y1 - 2016/4/12

N2 - Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has been shown to decrease plant species richness along regional deposition gradients in Europe and in experimental manipulations. However, the general response of species richness to N deposition across different vegetation types, soil conditions, and climates remains largely unknown even though responses may be contingent on these environmental factors. We assessed the effect of N deposition on herbaceous richness for 15,136 forest, woodland, shrubland, and grassland sites across the continental United States, to address how edaphic and climatic conditions altered vulnerability to this stressor. In our dataset, with N deposition ranging from 1 to 19 kg N⋅ha−1⋅y−1, we found a unimodal relationship; richness increased at low deposition levels and decreased above 8.7 and 13.4 kg N⋅ha−1⋅y−1 in open and closed-canopy vegetation, respectively. N deposition exceeded critical loads for loss of plant species richness in 24% of 15,136 sites examined nationwide. There were negative relationships between species richness and N deposition in 36% of 44 community gradients. Vulnerability to N deposition was consistently higher in more acidic soils whereas the moderating roles of temperature and precipitation varied across scales. We demonstrate here that negative relationships between N deposition and species richness are common, albeit not universal, and that fine-scale processes can moderate vegetation responses to N deposition. Our results highlight the importance of contingent factors when estimating ecosystem vulnerability to N deposition and suggest that N deposition is affecting species richness in forested and nonforested systems across much of the continental United States.

AB - Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has been shown to decrease plant species richness along regional deposition gradients in Europe and in experimental manipulations. However, the general response of species richness to N deposition across different vegetation types, soil conditions, and climates remains largely unknown even though responses may be contingent on these environmental factors. We assessed the effect of N deposition on herbaceous richness for 15,136 forest, woodland, shrubland, and grassland sites across the continental United States, to address how edaphic and climatic conditions altered vulnerability to this stressor. In our dataset, with N deposition ranging from 1 to 19 kg N⋅ha−1⋅y−1, we found a unimodal relationship; richness increased at low deposition levels and decreased above 8.7 and 13.4 kg N⋅ha−1⋅y−1 in open and closed-canopy vegetation, respectively. N deposition exceeded critical loads for loss of plant species richness in 24% of 15,136 sites examined nationwide. There were negative relationships between species richness and N deposition in 36% of 44 community gradients. Vulnerability to N deposition was consistently higher in more acidic soils whereas the moderating roles of temperature and precipitation varied across scales. We demonstrate here that negative relationships between N deposition and species richness are common, albeit not universal, and that fine-scale processes can moderate vegetation responses to N deposition. Our results highlight the importance of contingent factors when estimating ecosystem vulnerability to N deposition and suggest that N deposition is affecting species richness in forested and nonforested systems across much of the continental United States.

KW - nitrogen deposition

KW - plant species richness

KW - diversity

KW - soil pH

KW - climate

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1515241113

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1515241113

M3 - Journal article

VL - 113

SP - 4086

EP - 4091

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

SN - 0027-8424

IS - 15

ER -