Geoökologisches Kolloquium SS 2002

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Sarah Pryor, PhD
Atmospheric Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
Thursday, 23.05.2002 16:15 H6

Deposition of nitrogen to forests: Observations and carbon storage implications

Questions related to the distribution and dynamics of terrestrial carbon (C) sinks are at the core of current scientific and policy debates on national and international levels. The current un-explained enhancement of C storage in the mid-latitudes, and explicit inclusion in the Kyoto protocol of the proviso that countries can reduce emissions either by reducing consumption of fossil fuels or by increasing net C sequestration in terrestrial pools has profound implications both for policy development and for the study of C cycling in temperate forests. A number of causes have been proposed to explain current enhancement of C storage in temperate forests. The project I will describe seeks to quantify the role increased nitrogen (N) deposition is playing in enhanced C sequestration in temperate mid-latitude forests using detailed measurements from an AmeriFlux tower in southern Indiana (MMSF). I will discuss the issues in making accurate estimates of atmosphere-canopy exchange of N, some recent developments in instrumentation to provide more accurate N fluxes, present a summary of the data we have collected so far and provide a first estimate of the level of potential perturbation of C sequestration at this site due to the increased atmospheric N flux.

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