Elemental cycling response of an Adirondack subalpine spruce-fir forest to atmospheric and environmental change

Abstract

Patterns and trends in forest elemental cycling can become more apparent in the presence of atmospheric perturbations. High-elevation forests of the northeastern United States have received large amounts of atmospheric deposition of pollutants, which have altered natural elemental cycling and retention rates in a variety of ways. This study examined atmospheric deposition of nitrogen, sulfur and base cations, and their interactions in a high-elevation forest on Whiteface Mountain, New York. Eight years of elemental cycling data (1 986- 1993) have shown that at our main study site (1050-m elevation), atmospheric deposition of N was approximately 16.7 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1, with 32 percent contributed by cloud water. Atmospheric deposition of S was 16.3 kg S ha^-1 yr^-1, with 37 percent contributed by cloud water. Total atmospheric inputs of nitrogen and sulfur to the forest canopy increased by a factor of four and five, respectively, over the elevational range of 600 to 1275 m, largely due to the increased importance of cloud water deposition at high elevations. At 1050-m elevation, analyses of total ecosystem inventories and cycling revealed that nitrogen and potassium are conserved or retained in the ecosystem while sulfur, calcium and magnesium show losses in a relatively undisturbed spruce-fir-birch ecosystem.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings, 1995 meeting of the Northern Global Change Program; 1995 March 14-16; Pittsburgh, PA. : Introduction/Environmental Change

Citation

Friedland, Andrew J.; Miller, Eric K. 1996. Elemental cycling response of an Adirondack subalpine spruce-fir forest to atmospheric and environmental change. In: Hom, John; Birdsey, Richard; O''Brian, Kelly, eds. Proceedings 1995 meeting of the northern global change program; Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-214. Radnor, PA: U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station: 77-81.