Abstract
This study examines the influence of the increased atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition observed in central Russia between 1960 and 2010 (with a peak in 1990) on biodiversity and the availability of N in soil in pine forests. Shifts in N availability in soils of 3 pine plots were analyzed using presence/absence chronosequence records of the dynamics of ground vegetation plants and a set of specialist plant species with a narrow range of tolerance as bioindicators of soil richness. We assumed that changes in plant communities might be caused by increased atmospheric N input. To examine this assumption, (i) the species composition of forest ground vegetation was analyzed using the Ellenberg N scale and the Tsyganov N scale, which was developed for forest vegetation in European Russia, and (ii) the dynamics of the main N pools were examined using simulation models of forest growth and elements cycling in the forest-soil system. Our results confirm that changes in the ground vegetation communities experiencing eutrophication occurred in all plots. The number of indicators of N-rich conditions for these plots reached a maximum in 1990, the year N deposition reached its maximum in this area. The decline in the number of oligotrophic species indicated that N-poor soils decreased over the monitoring period. Model simulations showed an increase in labile N compounds in the soil and in the total N pool in forest ecosystems. Our results demonstrate an acceleration of natural succession due to atmospheric nitrogen deposition in this region.
Published Version
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