Effects of seabird nitrogen input on biomass and carbon accumulation after 50 years of primary succession on a young volcanic island, Surtsey. Leblans, N. I. W., Sigurdsson, B. D., Roefs, P., Thuys, R., Magnússon, B., & Janssens, I. A. Biogeosciences, 11(22):6237–6250, November, 2014.
Effects of seabird nitrogen input on biomass and carbon accumulation after 50 years of primary succession on a young volcanic island, Surtsey [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
\textlessp\textgreater\textlessstrong\textgreaterAbstract.\textless/strong\textgreater What happens during primary succession after the first colonizers have occupied a pristine surface largely depends on how they ameliorate living conditions for other species. For vascular plants the onset of soil development and associated increase in nutrient (mainly nitrogen; N) and water availability is especially important. Here, we report the relationship between N accumulation and biomass and ecosystem carbon (C) stocks in a 50-year-old volcanic island, Surtsey, Iceland, where N stocks are still exceptionally low. However, a 28-year-old seagull colony on the island provided nutrient-enriched areas, which enabled us to assess the relationship between N stock and biomass and ecosystem C stocks across a much larger range in N stock. Further, we compared areas on shallow and deep tephra sands as we expected that deep-rooted systems would be more efficient in retaining N. The sparsely vegetated area outside the colony had accumulated 0.7 kg N ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$ yr$^{\textrm{−1}}$, which was ca. 50–60% of the estimated N input rate from wet deposition. This approximates values for systems under low N input and bare dune habitats. The seagulls have added, on average, 47 kg N ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$ yr$^{\textrm{−1}}$, which induced a shift from belowground to aboveground in ecosystem N and C stocks and doubled the ecosystem N-use efficiency, determined as the ratio of biomass and C storage per unit N input. Soil depth did not significantly affect total N stocks, which suggests a high N retention potential. Both total ecosystem biomass and C stocks were strongly correlated with N stock inside the colony, which indicated the important role of N during the first steps of primary succession. Inside the colony, the ecosystem biomass C stocks (17–27 ton C ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$) had reached normal values for grasslands, while the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks (4–10 ton C ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$ were only a fraction of normal grassland values. Thus, it will take a long time until the SOC stock reaches equilibrium with the current primary production, during which conditions for new colonists may change.\textless/p\textgreater
@article{leblans_effects_2014,
	title = {Effects of seabird nitrogen input on biomass and carbon accumulation after 50 years of primary succession on a young volcanic island, {Surtsey}},
	volume = {11},
	issn = {1726-4170},
	url = {https://www.biogeosciences.net/11/6237/2014/},
	doi = {10.5194/bg-11-6237-2014},
	abstract = {{\textless}p{\textgreater}{\textless}strong{\textgreater}Abstract.{\textless}/strong{\textgreater} What happens during primary succession after the first colonizers have occupied a pristine surface largely depends on how they ameliorate living conditions for other species. For vascular plants the onset of soil development and associated increase in nutrient (mainly nitrogen; N) and water availability is especially important. Here, we report the relationship between N accumulation and biomass and ecosystem carbon (C) stocks in a 50-year-old volcanic island, Surtsey, Iceland, where N stocks are still exceptionally low. However, a 28-year-old seagull colony on the island provided nutrient-enriched areas, which enabled us to assess the relationship between N stock and biomass and ecosystem C stocks across a much larger range in N stock. Further, we compared areas on shallow and deep tephra sands as we expected that deep-rooted systems would be more efficient in retaining N. The sparsely vegetated area outside the colony had accumulated 0.7 kg N ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$ yr$^{\textrm{−1}}$, which was ca. 50–60\% of the estimated N input rate from wet deposition. This approximates values for systems under low N input and bare dune habitats. The seagulls have added, on average, 47 kg N ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$ yr$^{\textrm{−1}}$, which induced a shift from belowground to aboveground in ecosystem N and C stocks and doubled the ecosystem N-use efficiency, determined as the ratio of biomass and C storage per unit N input. Soil depth did not significantly affect total N stocks, which suggests a high N retention potential. Both total ecosystem biomass and C stocks were strongly correlated with N stock inside the colony, which indicated the important role of N during the first steps of primary succession. Inside the colony, the ecosystem biomass C stocks (17–27 ton C ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$) had reached normal values for grasslands, while the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks (4–10 ton C ha$^{\textrm{−1}}$ were only a fraction of normal grassland values. Thus, it will take a long time until the SOC stock reaches equilibrium with the current primary production, during which conditions for new colonists may change.{\textless}/p{\textgreater}},
	language = {English},
	number = {22},
	urldate = {2019-05-20},
	journal = {Biogeosciences},
	author = {Leblans, N. I. W. and Sigurdsson, B. D. and Roefs, P. and Thuys, R. and Magnússon, B. and Janssens, I. A.},
	month = nov,
	year = {2014},
	keywords = {\#nosource},
	pages = {6237--6250},
}

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