TY - JOUR
T1 - The response of understory herbaceous plants to nitrogen fertilization in forests of different land-use history
AU - Fraterrigo, Jennifer M.
AU - Pearson, Scott M.
AU - Turner, Monica G.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this study was provided by the Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program of the National Science Foundation (Grant DEB-0218001, Coweeta LTER). Field assistance was provided by S.L. Mark, S. Nichols, and D. Teat. This paper was improved by suggestions from H. Hasenauer and two anonymous reviewers.
PY - 2009/4/30
Y1 - 2009/4/30
N2 - Forests growing on former agricultural land often have reduced frequencies of many native forest herbs compared with forests that were never cleared for agriculture. A leading explanation for this pattern is that many forest herbs are dispersal limited, but environmental conditions may also hinder colonization. We examined the response of six forest herb taxa (Arisaema triphyllum, Cimicifuga racemosa, Disporum lanuginosum, Osmorhiza spp., Polygonatum spp., and Prenanthes altissima) to nitrogen (N) fertilization in forests with and without an agricultural history to investigate how N availability affects plant performance. The study was conducted in the southern Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina, USA. There was a significant interaction between land-use history and N treatment for several species. In A. triphyllum and Osmorhiza spp., N fertilization increased aboveground biomass or leaf area more in the post-agriculture site than in the reference site. However, in the reference site, N fertilization depressed aboveground biomass or leaf area in the same taxa, as well as in C. racemosa. The foliar N concentration of these three taxa was elevated in fertilized plots regardless of land-use history, and there was no indication that the light environment differed among plots. These results suggest that some plants growing in post-agricultural stands may be N limited, whereas undisturbed stands in this region appear to be approaching N saturation. Thus, environmental conditions, and particularly N availability, may be an obstacle to the restoration of forest herb communities.
AB - Forests growing on former agricultural land often have reduced frequencies of many native forest herbs compared with forests that were never cleared for agriculture. A leading explanation for this pattern is that many forest herbs are dispersal limited, but environmental conditions may also hinder colonization. We examined the response of six forest herb taxa (Arisaema triphyllum, Cimicifuga racemosa, Disporum lanuginosum, Osmorhiza spp., Polygonatum spp., and Prenanthes altissima) to nitrogen (N) fertilization in forests with and without an agricultural history to investigate how N availability affects plant performance. The study was conducted in the southern Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina, USA. There was a significant interaction between land-use history and N treatment for several species. In A. triphyllum and Osmorhiza spp., N fertilization increased aboveground biomass or leaf area more in the post-agriculture site than in the reference site. However, in the reference site, N fertilization depressed aboveground biomass or leaf area in the same taxa, as well as in C. racemosa. The foliar N concentration of these three taxa was elevated in fertilized plots regardless of land-use history, and there was no indication that the light environment differed among plots. These results suggest that some plants growing in post-agricultural stands may be N limited, whereas undisturbed stands in this region appear to be approaching N saturation. Thus, environmental conditions, and particularly N availability, may be an obstacle to the restoration of forest herb communities.
KW - Fertilization experiment
KW - Forest herbs
KW - Nutrient limitation
KW - Southern Appalachians
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=63749130618&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=63749130618&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.02.036
DO - 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.02.036
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:63749130618
SN - 0378-1127
VL - 257
SP - 2182
EP - 2188
JO - Forest Ecology and Management
JF - Forest Ecology and Management
IS - 10
ER -