Nitrogen (N) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems is a global environmental concern. The N cycle is a complex interplay where biotic and abiotic processes interact to transform and transfer N in an ecosystem. In general, one can simplify by classifying terrestrial N cycles all over the world in two groups: ‘tight’ N cycles and ‘open’ N cycles. The ‘tight’ N cycle is characterized by its high effic...

Mining activities can increase the bioavailability of metals in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Following over 100 years of copper mining in portions of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP) terrestrial ecosystems retain vast quantities of waste rock with traces of cadmium and large concentrations of copper. We compared liver cadmium and copper concentrations in ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), a...

15 Living on emerged land raises several problems: water may be rare or absent, implying (1) that mineral nutrition is more or less impaired, (2) radiation (mainly toxic UV-rays) is not filtered out and (3) strong fluctuations of temperature are not prevented. In spite of those adversities, Precambrian land was colonized by phototrophic microorganisms, probably prokaryotes1, and multicellular t...

Elevated nitrogen (N) deposition alters the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle, which is likely to feed back to further climate change. However, how the overall terrestrial ecosystem C pools and fluxes respond to N addition remains unclear. By synthesizing data from multiple terrestrial ecosystems, we quantified the response of C pools and fluxes to experimental N addition using a comprehensive meta-...

Global nitrogen fixation contributes 413 Tg of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to terrestrial and marine ecosystems annually of which anthropogenic activities are responsible for half, 210 Tg N. The majority of the transformations of anthropogenic Nr are on land (240 Tg N yr(-1)) within soils and vegetation where reduced Nr contributes most of the input through the use of fertilizer nitrogen in agricult...

Andrea Belgrano,* Andrew P. Allen, Brian J. Enquist, and James F. Gillooly Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, 167 Castetter Hall, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1091 USA. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, BioSciences West, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA. Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, 1919 M. St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 USA. *Correspondence:...

Ecosystems in the tropical coastal zone exchange particulate organic matter (POM) with adjacent systems, but differences in this function among ecosystems remain poorly quantified. Seagrass beds are often a relatively small section of this coastal zone, but have a potentially much larger ecological influence than suggested by their surface area. Using stable isotopes as tracers of oceanic, terr...

1.1 Excess supply of nutrients and terrestrial ecosystems Human activities have greatly accelerated emissions of both carbon dioxide and biologically reactive nutrients such as nitrogen (N) to the atmosphere (Canfield et al., 2010), which cause environmental changes affecting ecosystem processes and biodiversity in forests. Excess supply of N of anthropogenic origin to forest soils, such as com...

Terrestrial ecosystems have encountered substantial warming over the past century, with temperatures increasing about twice as rapidly over land as over the oceans. Here, we review the likelihood of continued changes in terrestrial climate, including analyses of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project global climate model ensemble. Inertia toward continued emissions creates potential 21st-cen...

Plant biodiversity can enhance primary production in terrestrial ecosystems, but biodiversity effects are largely unstudied in the ocean. We conducted a series of field and mesocosm experiments to measure the relative effects of macroalgal identity and richness on primary productivity (net photosynthetic rate) and biomass accumulation in hard substratum subtidal communities in North Carolina, U...