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The invasive annual cheatgrass increases nitrogen availability in 24-year-old replicated field plots

  • Ecosystem ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Previous studies comparing invaded and non-invaded sites suggest that cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) causes soil N cycling to increase. Unfortunately, these correlative studies fail to distinguish whether cheatgrass caused the differences in N cycling, or if cheatgrass simply invaded sites where N availability was greater. We measured soil C and N concentrations and net and gross N-cycling rates on 24-year-old replicated field plots in a sagebrush–steppe ecosystem that had been plowed, fumigated, and seeded to different plant communities in 1984. Laboratory assays of soil collected throughout the soil profiles (0–60 cm) showed that soil NO3 −, organic C and N, and net N mineralization, net nitrification, and soil respiration rates were all greater beneath cheatgrass than in sagebrush–perennial grass plots. In surface soils (0–10 cm), field and lab assays on five sampling dates during 2 years showed gross N mineralization, net N mineralization, and net nitrification rates were all faster beneath cheatgrass than in sagebrush–perennial grass plots. Modeling analyses based on soil respiration and gross N-cycling rates suggest that cheatgrass provides soil microbes with lower C:N substrates and that this could explain the faster N-cycling rates beneath cheatgrass. This is the first long-term replicated field study to conclusively show that cheatgrass created greater soil organic N pool sizes and stimulated N-cycling rates compared to similar-aged stands of sagebrush and native perennial grasses. Increased N-cycling rates may represent a positive plant–soil feedback that promotes continued dominance by cheatgrass, even in the absence of soil disturbance or fire.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Sarah Benanti, D’Jena Diaz, Brandon Chambers, Toby Hooker, Brittany Packer, and Cade Kowalis for help with fieldwork and laboratory analyses. Funding for this project was provided by the USDA, Biology of Weedy and Invasive Plants (agreement no.: 2008-35320-18668) and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station (UAES), Utah State University, and approved as UAES journal paper no. 8683.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, 5305 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    John M. Stark

  2. Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    Jeanette M. Norton

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  1. John M. Stark
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Correspondence to John M. Stark.

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Communicated by Russell Monson.

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Stark, J.M., Norton, J.M. The invasive annual cheatgrass increases nitrogen availability in 24-year-old replicated field plots. Oecologia 177, 799–809 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3093-5

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