RESEARCH PROGRESS ON THE IMPACT OF NITROGEN DEPOSITION ON GLOBAL GRASSLANDS

Highlights

● Grasslands in many regions of the world have been impacted by atmospheric nitrogen deposition.

● Nitrogen deposition commonly leads to reductions in species richness.

● Increases in biomass production is a common response to increased N deposition.

● In some parts of the world there has been limited research into the impacts of nitrogen deposition.

Abstract

Grasslands are globally-important ecosystems providing critical ecosystem services. The species composition and characteristics of grasslands vary considerably across the planet with a wide variety of different grasslands found. However, in many regions grasslands have been impacted by atmospheric nitrogen deposition originating from anthropogenic activities with effects on productivity, species composition and diversity widely reported. Impacts vary across grassland habitats but many show declines in species richness and increases in biomass production related to soil eutrophication and acidification. At a continental level there is considerable variation in the research effort that has been put into understanding the impacts of nitrogen deposition. In Europe, North America and parts of Asia, although there are unanswered research questions, there is a good understanding of N deposition impacts in most grassland habitats. This is not the case in other regions with large knowledge gaps in some parts of the world. This paper reviews the impacts of N deposition on grasslands around the world, highlighting recent advances and areas where research is still needed.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Acidification / biomass production / critical load / eutrophication / species composition / species richness

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Compliance with ethics guidelines

Carly J. Stevens, Sofía Basto, Michael D. Bell, Tianxiang Hao, Kevin Kirkman, and Raúl Ochoa-Hueso declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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