CH4 uptake and N availability in forest soils along an urban to rural gradient

Abstract

Concern about increases in atmospheric CH4 concentrations has resulted in investigations of the magnitude of and the factors that control aerobic soils as a sink for CH4. N additions decrease CH4 consumption in temperate forest, prairie and agricultural soils, suggesting that low rates of CH4 consumption are associated with high concentrations of available N. We have observed the opposite pattern in a series of oak-dominated forest sites of similar age on similar soils located along an urban to rural land-use gradient. Low rates of CH4 consumption were observed in urban forest sites with low amounts of available N relative to rural sites that had high concentrations of available N. In situ c..