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- Title
Plant Colonizers Shape Early N-dynamics in Gopher-mounds.
- Authors
Canals, Rosa M.; Eviner, Valerie R.; Herman, Donald J.; Chapin III, F. Stuart
- Abstract
Disturbances by fossorial mammals are extremely common in many ecosystems, including the California annual grassland. We compared the impact of juveniles of four common plant colonizers ( Aegilops triuncialis, Cerastium glomeratum, Aphanes occidentalis and Lupinus bicolor) on the pools and fluxes of N in mounds created by pocket gophers ( Thomomys bottae Mewa). The mechanisms and magnitude of biotic N retention differed among plant species. In mounds colonized by Cerastium, Aphanes and Lupinus, the microbial N pool was significantly larger than the plant N pool, as is typical in California grasslands in the early spring, whereas in mounds colonized by Aegilops, there was a more equal distribution of biotic N between plant and microbial pools. A 1-day 15N pulse field experiment demonstrated that plant species significantly differed in their effects on the distribution of isotopic N, with the N-fixing Lupinus leaving most (82%) 15N as inorganic N in soil, whereas more 15N was immobilized in plants or otherwise removed from the available soil pool in mounds colonized by other species. The impacts of early colonizers on N dynamics suggest that the identity of plant species that initially colonize gopher mounds may have important consequences on the dynamics of the overall grassland community.
- Subjects
CALIFORNIA; GRASSLANDS; PLANT colonization; PLANT species; AEGILOPS; CERASTIUM; LUPINES; THOMOMYS bottae; BIOTIC communities
- Publication
Plant & Soil, 2005, Vol 276, Issue 1/2, p327
- ISSN
0032-079X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11104-005-5086-y