A 3-year continuous record of nitrogen trace gas fluxes from untreated andlimed soil of a N-saturated spruce and beech forest ecosystem in Germany -1. N2O emissions

For 3 years we followed the complete annual cycles of N2O emission rates wi th 2-hour resolution in spruce and beech plantations of the Hoglwald Forest , Bavaria, Germany, in order to gain detailed information about seasonal an d interannual variations of N2O emissions. In addition, microbiological pro cess studies were performed for identification of differences in N turnover rates in the soil of a spruce and a beech site and for estimation of the c ontribution of nitrification and denitrification to the actual N2O emission . Both pronounced seasonal and extreme interannual variations of N2O emissi ons were identified. During long-term frost periods, while the soil was fro zen, and during soil thawing, extremely high N2O emissions occurred, contri buting up to 73% to the total annual N2O loss. The enormous N2O releases du ring the long-term frost period were due to high microbial N turnover rates (tight coupling of ammonification, nitrification, denitrification) in smal l unfrozen water films of the frozen soil at high concentrations of easily degradable substrates derived from the enormous pool of dead microbial biom ass produced during the long-term frost period. Liming of a spruce site res ulted in a significant increase in ammonification, nitrification, and N2O e missions as compared with an untreated spruce control site. The beech contr ol site exhibited 4-5 times higher N2O emissions than the spruce control si te, indicating that forest type itself is an important modulator of N2O rel ease from soil. At all sites, nitrification contributed similar to 70% to t he N2O flux, whereas denitrification contributed markedly less (similar to 30%). There was a significant positive correlation between amount of in sit u N input by wet deposition and magnitude of in situ N2O emissions. At the beech site, 10% of the actual N input was released from the soil in form of N2O, whereas at the spruce site the fraction was 0.5%. N2O emission rates were positively correlated with net nitrification rates. The results demons trate the need for long-term measurements over several years for more preci se estimates of annual N2O losses from forest ecosystems. On the basis of o ur results we conclude that the importance of temperate and boreal forests fur the global N2O source strength may have been significantly underestimat ed in the past and that these forests contribute most likely much greater t han 1.0 Tg N2O N.