Impact of invasive plant and environmental conditions on denitrification potential in urban riparian ecosystems

Abstract

One of the most serious problems involved in riparian restoration is the proliferation of invasive plants during or after a restoration project. Although many studies have assessed ecological influences of invasive plants, life history in particular, only a few have clarified the functional consequences of such changes. In this study, we aimed to determine the influences of an invasive plant, Humulus japonicus, and environmental conditions on riparian ecosystem functions, focusing on denitrification. Soil samples from five riparian ecosystems in Korea were collected on four occasions over a one-year period, and denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) was measured using an acetylene blocking method. DEA varied between 2.5 and>7000 ng N2O g−1 soil h−1. Overall results suggest that DEA was fairly high in winter, but the influences of H. japonicus were minimal. The results suggest that water availability may be a more dominant controlling variable than the presence of H. japonicus for DEA.