Denitrification in a tallgrass prairie landscape

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

1-1-1993

Abstract

At the Konza Prairie site, C Kansas, denitrification was higher in unburned sites than in burned, burned and grazed and cultivated sites. The cultivated site consistently had low rates of denitrification relative to the native prairie sites, even when water and nitrate were added. Levels of microbial biomass C and nitrification and denitrification enzyme activities were an order of magnitude lower in the cultivated site than in the native prairie sites. Although temporal patterns of activity were generally related to patterns of soil moisture, water additions did not stimulate activity in ungrazed prairie soils. Water plus nitrate additions consistently gave significant increases in activity. In certain years, denitrification may be significant to site fertility, landscape water quality, and atmospheric chemistry in the tallgrass prairie region. -from Authors

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

Ecology

Volume

74

Issue

3

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