Journal
FRONTIERS IN FORESTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE
Volume 2, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/ffgc.2019.00085
Keywords
hydrological P cycle; canopy P balance; atmospheric P deposition; groundwater; discharge; soil water; EMMA; periphyton
Funding
- DFG [DFGWE 4598/7-1, SPP 1685]
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Declining foliar phosphorus (P) levels call increasing attention to the cycling of this element in temperate forests. We explored the fluxes of P in a temperate mixed deciduous forest ecosystem in six distinct hydrological compartments: Bulk precipitation and throughfall, soil water draining laterally from three different soil depths (0-15, 15-150, 150-320 cm below soil surface), groundwater, creek and spring discharge, which were sampled at daily to bi-weekly resolution from March 2015 to February 2016. Atmospheric P fluxes into the ecosystem were equally partitioned between wet and dry deposition. Approximately 10% of the foliar P stock was lost annually by foliar leaching during late summer. The concentrations of dissolved P in soil water from the forest floor and upper mineral topsoil followed a pronounced seasonal cycle with higher concentrations during the vegetation period. The concentrations of P dissolved in soil water decreased with increasing soil depth. Using an end member mixing analysis (EMMA) we found that P sources feeding the spring water were both soil water from greater depths or groundwater with season specific contributions. Atmospheric P fluxes into the ecosystem determined in this study and P-release from weathering reported for the research site were large enough to compensate P losses with runoff. This suggests that declining foliar P levels of forests are unlikely the result of a dwindling total P supply, but rather caused by tree nutrition imbalances or alternative stressors.
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