Effects of a ten-year climate warming experiment on nitrogen cycling in high arctic tundra ...

The effects of a 10-year climate warming experiment on nitrogen (N) cycling in high arctic tundra ecosystems were examined along a soil moisture gradient at Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada (78°53'N, 75°55'W). Open top chambers were established in 1992 to passively warm five tundr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rolph, Sandra Gale
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: University of British Columbia 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0090983
https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0090983
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Summary:The effects of a 10-year climate warming experiment on nitrogen (N) cycling in high arctic tundra ecosystems were examined along a soil moisture gradient at Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada (78°53'N, 75°55'W). Open top chambers were established in 1992 to passively warm five tundra plant communities within the range predicted for a doubling of atmospheric CO₂. Inorganic N availability, measured using ion exchange membranes, was consistently higher in the warmed plots throughout the growing season in three plant communities. Soluble organic N availability increased significantly with warming in a wet sedge meadow. Net N mineralization in buried bag incubations was not significantly affected by the warming treatments; however, net N immobilization was four-times higher in the warmed plots compared to the controls in the sedge meadow. Reciprocal transplantation of buried bags between temperature treatments indicated that the increase in net N immobilization was a result of changes in soil properties ...