Canopy nitrogen and tree carbon uptake
Canopy-applied 15N is recovered aboveground about three times more than soil-applied N.
Source
Does canopy nitrogen uptake enhance carbon sequestration by trees?
Study at a glance
- Design
- Animal / in-vitro — 15N tracer mesocosm comparing canopy vs soil nitrogen targeting in Sitka spruce
- N
- Potted Sitka spruce mesocosms; mean aboveground biomass 370 g/tree — exact tree N not primary in stored text
- Population
- Potted Sitka spruce trees
- Outcome
- Aboveground and wood recovery of canopy-applied vs soil-applied 15N
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Inspect source passages
Canopy nitrogen and tree carbon uptake
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
Needle enrichment reached about 120% in CNU by April 2014.
to about 120% (CNU) or 38% (SNU) by April 2014
What tree species was used?
Sitka spruce [ Picea sitchensis , (Bong.) Carr.] saplings
What they did
Traced 15N applied to Sitka spruce canopies versus soil in potted mesocosms from February 2013 to March 2014, then harvested trees.
What they found
Canopy N uptake recovered about three times more tracer aboveground and four times more in wood than soil-targeted deposition; needle δ15N reached about 120‰ versus 38‰.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Does not measure whole-forest C stocks or prove that canopy uptake changes landscape-scale carbon sequestration.
Key terms
- Canopy nitrogen uptake (CNU)
- Foliage taking up deposited nitrogen before it reaches soil.
- N deposition (NDEP)
- Atmospheric nitrogen falling onto ecosystems.
- 15N tracer
- Heavy nitrogen isotope used to follow N movement.
- ΔC/ΔN
- Extra carbon stored per unit extra nitrogen.
- Mesocosm
- Potted experimental ecosystem.
- Soil nitrogen uptake (SNU)
- N added to soil rather than foliage.
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Aboveground 15N from canopy vs soil N was about:
Common questions
Study trees?
Sitka spruce saplings.
Aboveground 15N vs soil?
About three times more from canopy application.
Wood 15N?
About four times higher from CNU.
Mean aboveground biomass?
370 ± 119 g per tree.
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