Deposition of nitrogen to forests: Observations and carbon storage implications

Presenting person: Sarah Pryor, PhD, Atmospheric Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
Th. 2002-05-23 (16:15), H6

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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