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Nutrient losses in runoff from grassland and shrubland habitats in Southern New Mexico: I. rainfall simulation experiments
Authors:William H Schlesinger  Athol D Abrahams  Anthony J Parsons  John Wainwright
Institution:(1) Department of Botany and Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, 27708 Durham, NC, USA;(2) Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo, 14261 Buffalo, NY, USA;(3) Department of Geography, University of Leicester, LEI 7RH Leicester, UK;(4) Department of Geography, King's College London, WC2R 2LS Strand, London, UK
Abstract:Rainfall simulation experiments were performed in areas of semiarid grassland (Bouteloua eriopoda) and arid shrubland (Larrea tridentata) in the Chihuahuan desert of New Mexico. The objective was to compare the runoff of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from these habitats to assess whether losses of soil nutrients are associated with the invasion of grasslands by shrubs. Runoff losses from grass- and shrub-dominated plots were similar, and much less than from bare plots located in the shrubland. Weighted average concentrations of total dissolved N compounds in runoff were greatest in the grassland (1.72 mg/1) and lowest in bare plots in the shrubland (0.55 mg/1). More than half of the N transported in runoff was carried in dissolved organic compounds. In grassland and shrub plots, the total N loss was highly correlated to the total volume of discharge. We estimate that the total annual loss of N in runoff is 0.25 kg/ha/yr in grasslands and 0.43 kg/ha/yr in shrublands — consistent with the depletion of soil N during desertification of these habitats. Losses of P from both habitats were very small.
Keywords:Chihuahuan desert  desert  desertification  grassland  nitrogen  nutrient budgets  phosphorus  runoff
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