Anthropogenic change and soil net N mineralization

Risch Anita C., Zimmermann, Stefan, Moser, Barbara, Schütz, Martin, Hagedorn, Frank, Firn, Jennifer, Fay, Philip A., Adler, Peter B., Biederman, Lori A., Blair, John M., Borer, Elizabeth T., Broadbent, Arthur A.D., Brown, Cynthia S., Cadotte, Marc W., Caldeira, Maria C., Davies, Kendi F., di Virgilio, Augustina, Eisenhauer, Nico, Eskelinen, Anu, Knops, Johannes M.H., MacDougall, Andrew S., McCulley, Rebecca L., Melbourne, Brett A., Moore, Joslin L., Power, Sally A., Prober, Suzanne M., Seabloom, Eric W., Siebert, Julia, Silveira, Maria L. , Speziale, Karina L., Stevens, Carly J., Tognetti, Pedro M., Virtanen, Risto, Yahdjian, Laura, Ochoa-Hueso, Raul (accepted).

Global impacts of fertilization and herbivore removal on soil net nitrogen mineralization are modulated by local climate and soil properties. Global Change Biology Please cite this paper together with the citation for the datafile. We assessed how the removal of mammalian herbivores (Fence) and fertilization with growth-limiting nutrients (N, P, K, plus nine essential macro- and micronutrients; NPK) individually, and in combination (NPK+Fence), affected potential and realized soil net Nmin across 22 natural and semi-natural grasslands on five continents.

Our sites spanned a comprehensive range of climatic and edaphic conditions found across the grassland biome. We focused on grasslands, because they cover 40-50% of the ice-free land surface and provide vital ecosystem functions and services. They are particularly important for forage production and C sequestration.

Worldwide, grasslands store approximately 20-30% of the Earth’s terrestrial C, most of it in the soil (Schimel, 1995; White et al., 2000).