Nitrogen Physiology of Forest Plants and Soils
Funding: EU - EV5V-CT92-0143 "NIPHYS"
From 04/1993 to 03/1996
Principal Investigator: Ernst-Detlef Schulze
Staff: Gerhard Gebauer, Guntram Bauer
NIPHYS (Nitrogen Physiology of Forest Plants and Soils) is an investigation of the present effects of soil-borne and deposited nitrogen on forest organisms and soils along a climatic transect through Europe in order to substantiate predictions on effects of changing depositions and global climate on broad-leaved and coniferous trees.
Investigations on forest decline have demonstrated the importance of nitrogen immissions in enhancing various nutritional imbalances in trees and soil acidification. Nevertheless, we are presently unable to quantify several basic questions: (1) What form of nitrogen is used by trees in different environments, (2) what roles are played by soil properties, mycorrhiza, and microorganisms in the transformation of nitrogen in forest soils, (3) which processes regulate the ammonium/nitrate ratio in soil solution. NIPHYS addresses these issues by investigating plant, microbial, and abiotic processes involved in the transformation of ammonium and nitrate in forest soils of different climatic regions. The project combines botanical, microbiological and soil science. Each participant will work at all study sites. NIPHYS will make comparative studies of the objectives. General objectives are: (1) to compare broad-leaved and coniferous trees, (2) to quantify the ecosystem internal fluxes of ammonium and nitrate, (3) to identify the sources of nitrate in groundwaters, and (4) to develop the capacity to predict future development in forest soils with respect to soil acidification and groundwater quality.
List of publications of this Project
| • Gebauer, G; Zeller, B; Schmidt, G; May, C; Buchmann, N; Colin-Belgrand, M; Dambrine, E; Martin, F; Schulze, ED; Bottner, P: The fate of |
| • Harrison, AF; Schulze, ED; Gebauer, G; Bruckner, G: Canopy uptake and utilisation of atmospheric pollutant N. in E.-D. Schulze: Ecological Studies No. 142, Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling in European Forest Ecosystems, Springer, 171-188 (2000) |
| • Bauer, GA; Gebauer, G; Harrison, AF; Högberg, P; Högbom, L; Schinkel, H; Taylor, AFS; Novak, M; Harkness, D; Persson, T; Schulze, ED: Biotic and abiotic controls over ecosystem cycling of stable natural nitrogen, carbon and sulphur isotopes. in E.-D. Schulze: Ecological Studies No. 142, Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling in European Forest Ecosystems, Springer, 189-214 (2000) |
| • Gebauer, G: The use of stable isotopes to study the fate of nitrogen inputs to forest ecosystems. in M.A. Martins-Loucao, S.H. Lips: Nitrogen in a Sustainable Ecosystem - From the Cell to the Plant, Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, 317-327 (2000) |
| • Gebauer, G; Schulze, ED: Nitrate nutrition of Central European forest trees. in Rennenberg,H; Eschrich,W; Ziegler,H (eds.): Trees - Contributions to Modern Tree Physiology, Backhuys Publishers, Leyden, 273-291 (1997) |
| • Gebauer, G; Dietrich, P: Nitrogen isotope ratios in different compartments of a mixed stand of spruce, larch and beech trees and of understorey vegetation including fungi, Isotopes Environm. Health Studies, 29, 35-44 (1993), doi:10.1080/10256019308046133 |