Vernal nitrogen and phosphorus retention by forest understory vegetation and soil microbes

Abstract

Northern hardwood forests experience annual maximal loss of nutrients during spring. The vernal dam hypothesis predicts that spring ephemeral herbs in northern hardwood forests serve as sinks for nutrients during this season and reduce the loss of nutrients from the terrestrial ecosystem. Soil microbes of northern hardwood forests also sequester nutrients during spring. We compared the vernal nutrient acquisition ability of a soil microbial community and an understory plant community with species of mixed leaf phenology. We monitored nitrogen and phosphorus pool sizes in understory vegetation and soil microbes during spring from 1999 through 2001 in a northern hardwood forest in the Catskill Mountains, New York. Vegetation nutrient content increased during two spring seasons by an average of 3.07 g N m−2 and 0.19 g P m−2 and decreased during one spring by 0.81 g N m−2 and 0.10 g P m−2. Evergreen, wintergreen, and deciduous plant species were able to sequester nutrients during spring. Soil microbial nutrient content decreased during one spring by 1.29 g N m−2 and remained constant during the other two springs. Streamwater nitrogen losses were not correlated with biotic nutrient uptake suggesting a temporal disconnect between the two processes. We conclude that understory vegetation is a larger potential sink for vernal nutrients than are soil microbes in this northern hardwood forest and understory and species representing multiple phenologies are capable of vernal nutrient uptake.