Short-term soil respiration and nitrogen immobilization response to nitrogen applications in control and nitrogen-enriched temperate forests

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Forest stands at the Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA, receiving experimentally elevated N inputs have shown greatly increased N leaching loss yet still retain over 70% of the added N in soils, presumably in organic form. Whether microbial or abiotic mechanisms are responsible for the high N retention is not well understood. We monitored soil respiration and extractable NH 4-N and NO 3-N following monthly applications of NH 4NO 3 to a hardwood forest and a pine plantation during the fifth year of chronic fertilizer applications (15 g N as NH 4NO 3 m −2 per year). We hypothesized that individual N applications would increase short-term soil respiration (within 1 month) in previously unamended and N-limited soil, but that little or no increase would occur following N applications to chronically N-amended soils, assumed to be carbon-limited to some degree after 5 years of N additions. Short-term soil respiration did not increase after N additions in either the chronically amended or previously untreated soils except for one instance in the latter. However, extractable N levels in both previously unamended plots returned to pre-application levels within 2 weeks of the N addition. This rapid disappearance of the applied N suggests microbial immobilization, but in all but one instance there was no accompanying CO 2 efflux increase indicating increased microbial biomass growth. A model of N immobilization through microbial biomass production, driven by the observed apparent net N immobilization, predicted soil CO 2 efflux 4–17 times greater than measured rates. Microbial biomass production does not appear to be the mechanism by which the fertilizer N immobilization occurred, according to our assumptions about microbial C:N ratios and carbon use efficiency. Hardwood stand average soil respiration rates over the study period were significantly higher in the previously unamended plot than in the control, and the control and chronically N-treated plot respiration rates were similar. Soil respiration rates for all pine stand treatments were similar. These results are insufficient to support our hypotheses concerning carbon versus nitrogen limitation in these soils. Our results, along with evidence from other studies, suggest that abiotic mechanisms play a role in the high retention of long-term N additions in these soils.