Environ Monit Assess (2009) 159:241–253
DOI 10.1007/s10661-008-0626-6
Atmospheric inorganic nitrogen deposition to a typical
red soil forestland in southeastern China
Jian-Ling Fan · Zheng-Yi Hu · Ti-Jian Wang ·
Jing Zhou · Cong-yang-hui Wu · Xu Xia
Received: 24 July 2008 / Accepted: 10 October 2008 / Published online: 9 November 2008
© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract A 2-year monitoring study was con-
ducted to estimate nitrogen deposition to a typical
red soil forestland in southeastern China. The dry
deposition velocities (V
d
) were estimated using
big leaf resistance analogy model. Atmospheric
nitrogen dry deposition was estimated by combing
V
d
and nitrogen compounds concentrations, and
the wet deposition was calculated via rainfall and
nitrogen concentrations in rainwater. The total
inorganic nitrogen deposition was 83.7 kg ha
−1
a
−1
in 2004 and 81.3 kg ha
−1
a
−1
in 2005, respec-
J.-L. Fan · J. Zhou · C.-y.-h. Wu · X. Xia
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable
Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, 71st East Beijing Road,
Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China
J.-L. Fan · Z.-Y. Hu (
B
) · C.-y.-h. Wu · X. Xia
College of Resources and Environment,
Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,
19A, Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: zhyhu@gucas.ac.cn
T.-J. Wang
Department of Atmospheric Science,
Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road,
Nanjing 210093, People’s Republic of China
J. Zhou
Experiment Station of Red Soil Ecology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yingtan 335211,
People’s Republic of China
tively. The dry deposition contributed 78.6% to
total nitrogen deposition, in which ammonia was
the predominant contributor that accounted for
86.1%. Reduced nitrogen compounds were the
predominant contributors, accounting for 78.3%
of total nitrogen deposition. The results suggested
that atmospheric inorganic nitrogen could be at-
tributed to intensive agricultural practices such
as excessive nitrogen fertilization and livestock
production. Therefore, impacts of atmospheric ni-
trogen originated from agriculture practices on
nearby forest ecosystems should be evaluated.
Keywords Nitrogen deposition · Wet deposition ·
Dry deposition · Forestland · Red soil
Introduction
Forest ecosystems are commonly considered to
be nitrogen deficient and retention of nitrogen
within the ecosystems is usually essentially com-
plete (Cosby et al. 1997; Johnson 1992). But with
the increased emissions of oxidized nitrogen from
industrial and transportation activities, and of
reduced nitrogen from intensive livestock pro-
duction and agriculture practices (Galloway 1995;
Vitousek et al. 1997), atmospheric nitrogen depo-
sition to forest ecosystems has increased rapidly
in recent years (Galloway et al. 2003; Rodà
et al. 2002). Many studies confirm that elevated