| Abstract: | Although the watershed approach has long been used to study whole-ecosystem function, it has seldom been applied to study human-dominated systems, especially those dominated by urban and suburban land uses. Here we present 3 years of data on nitrogen (N) losses from one completely forested, one agricultural, and six urban/suburban watersheds, and input-output N budgets for suburban, forested, and agricultural watersheds. The work is a product of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a long-term study of urban and suburban ecosystems, and a component of the US National Science Foundation‘s long-term ecological research (LTER) network. As expected, urban and suburban watersheds had much higher N losses than did the completely forested watershed, with N yields ranging from 2.9 to 7.9 kg N ha-1 y-1 in the urban and suburban watersheds compared with less than 1 kg N ha-1 y -1 in the completely forested watershed. Yields from urban and suburban watersheds were lower than those from an agricultural watershed (13-19.8 kg N ha-1 y-1). Retention of N in the suburban watershed was surprisingly high, 75% of inputs, which were dominated by home lawn fertilizer (14.4 kg N ha-1 y-1) and atmospheric deposition (11.2 kg N ha-1 y-1). Detailed analysis of mechanisms of N retention, which must occur in the significant amounts of pervious surface present in urban and suburban watersheds, and which include storage in soils and vegetation and gaseous loss, is clearly warranted. |
| Genre: | Article |
| ProdID: | 70027235 |
| Citation Author: | Groffman, P. M.; Law, N. L.; Belt, K. T.; Band, L. E.; Fisher, G. T. |
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| Citation End Page: | 403 |
| Citation Issue: | 4 |
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| Citation Language: | English |
| Citation Larger Work Title: | Ecosystems |
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| Citation Number Of Pages: | 11 |
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| Citation Search Results Text: | Nitrogen fluxes and retention in urban watershed ecosystems; 2004; Article; Journal; Ecosystems; Groffman, P. M.; Law, N. L.; Belt, K. T.; Band, L. E.; Fisher, G. T. |
| Citation Start Page: | 393 |
| Citation Volume: | 7 |
| Citation Year: | 2004 |
| Type: | citation/reference |
| Text: | Nitrogen fluxes and retention in urban watershed ecosystems; 2004; Article; Journal; Ecosystems; Groffman, P. M.; Law, N. L.; Belt, K. T.; Band, L. E.; Fisher, G. T. |
| URL (THUMBNAIL): | http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg |
| Date Other: | Thu, 1 Jan 2004 00:00 -0600 |
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