RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Plant and vegetation functional responses to cumulative high nitrogen deposition in rear-edge heathlands
A1 Taboada Palomares, Ángela
A1 Calvo Fernández, Javier
A1 Marcos Porras, Elena María
A1 Calvo Galván, María Leonor
A2 Ecologia
K1 Ecología. Medio ambiente
K1 Air pollution
K1 Calluna vulgaris heathlands
K1 Cumulative nitrogen effect
K1 Life cycle stage
K1 Nitrogen saturation
K1 Rear-edge populations
AB Elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is a major driver of change, altering the structure/functioning of nutrient-poor Calluna vulgaris-heathlands over Europe. These effects amply proven for north-western/central heathlands may, however, vary across the ecosystem's distribution, especially at the range limits, as heathlands are highly vulnerable to land-use changes combined with present climate change. This is an often overlooked and greatly understudied aspect of the ecology of heathlands facing global change. We investigated the effects of five N-fertilisation treatments simulating a range of N deposition rates (0, 10, 20, and 50 kg N ha−1 yr−1 for 1 year; and 56 kg N ha−1 yr−1 for 9 years) on the Calluna-plants, the plant functional groups, species composition and richness of two life-cycle stages (building/young- and mature-phase) of Calluna-heathlands at their rear-edge limit. Our findings revealed a dose-related response of the shoot length and number of flowers of young and mature Calluna-plants to the addition of N, adhering to the findings from other heathland locations. However, cumulative high-N loading reduced the annual growth and flowering of young plants, showing early signs of N saturation. The different plant functional groups showed contrasting responses to the cumulative addition of N: annual/perennial forbs and annual graminoids increased with quite low values; perennial graminoids were rather abundant in young heathlands but only slightly augmented in mature ones; while bryophytes and lichens strongly declined at the two heathland life-cycle stages. Meanwhile there were no significant N-driven changes in plant species composition and richness. Our results demonstrated that Calluna-heathlands at their low-latitude distribution limit are moderately resistant to cumulative high-N loading. As north-western/central European heathlands under high-N inputs broadly experienced the loss of plant diversity and pronounced changes in plant species dominance, rear-edge locations may be of critical importance to unravel the mechanisms of heathland resilience to future global change.
PB Elsevier
YR 2018
FD 2018-11-05
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10612/8950
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10612/8950
NO Science of the total environment, 2018, vol. 637-638
NO P. 980-990
DS BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
RD 26-abr-2024