Articles | Volume 1, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-381-2015
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-381-2015
Review article
 | 
21 Apr 2015
Review article |  | 21 Apr 2015

A new synthesis for terrestrial nitrogen inputs

B. Z. Houlton and S. L. Morford

Related authors

Strong correspondence between nitrogen isotope composition of foliage and chlorin across a rainfall gradient: implications for paleo-reconstruction of the nitrogen cycle
Sara K. E. Goulden, Naohiko Ohkouchi, Katherine H. Freeman, Yoshito Chikaraishi, Nanako O. Ogawa, Hisami Suga, Oliver Chadwick, and Benjamin Z. Houlton
Biogeosciences, 16, 3869–3882, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3869-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3869-2019, 2019
Short summary
Stable isotopic constraints on global soil organic carbon turnover
Chao Wang, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Dongwei Liu, Jianfeng Hou, Weixin Cheng, and Edith Bai
Biogeosciences, 15, 987–995, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-987-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-987-2018, 2018
Short summary

Related subject area

Soils and biogeochemical cycling
Land inclination controls CO2 and N2O fluxes, but not CH4 uptake, in a temperate upland forest soil
Lauren M. Gillespie, Nathalie Y. Triches, Diego Abalos, Peter Finke, Sophie Zechmeister-Boltenstern, Stephan Glatzel, and Eugenio Díaz-Pinés
SOIL, 9, 517–531, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-517-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-517-2023, 2023
Short summary
Tropical Andosol organic carbon quality and degradability in relation to soil geochemistry as affected by land use
Sastrika Anindita, Peter Finke, and Steven Sleutel
SOIL, 9, 443–459, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-443-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-443-2023, 2023
Short summary
Soil organic carbon stocks did not change after 130 years of afforestation on a former Swiss Alpine pasture
Tatjana Carina Speckert, Jeannine Suremann, Konstantin Gavazov, Maria Joao Santos, Frank Hagedorn, and Guido Lars Bruno Wiesenberg
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-645,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-645, 2023
Short summary
Elemental stoichiometry and Rock-Eval® thermal stability of organic matter in French topsoils
Amicie A. Delahaie, Pierre Barré, François Baudin, Dominique Arrouays, Antonio Bispo, Line Boulonne, Claire Chenu, Claudy Jolivet, Manuel P. Martin, Céline Ratié, Nicolas P. A. Saby, Florence Savignac, and Lauric Cécillon
SOIL, 9, 209–229, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-209-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-209-2023, 2023
Short summary
Oil-palm management alters the spatial distribution of amorphous silica and mobile silicon in topsoils
Britta Greenshields, Barbara von der Lühe, Harold J. Hughes, Christian Stiegler, Suria Tarigan, Aiyen Tjoa, and Daniela Sauer
SOIL, 9, 169–188, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-169-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-169-2023, 2023
Short summary

Cited articles

Aandahl, A. R.: The characterization of slope positions and their influence on the total nitrogen content of a few virgin soils of western Iowa, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc., 13, 449–454, 1948.
Aber, J. D., Nadelhoffer, K. D., Steudler, P., and Melillo, J. M.: Nitrogen saturation in northern forest ecosystems, BioScience, 39, 378–386, 1989.
Amundson, R. and Jenny, H.: The place of humans in the state factor theory of ecosystems and their soils, Soil Sci., 151, 99–109, 1991.
Amundson, R., Austin, A. T., Schuur, E. A. G., Yoo, K., Matzek, V., Kendall, C., Uebersax, A., Brenner, D., and Baisden, W. T.: Global patterns of the isotopic composition of soil and plant nitrogen, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 17, 1031, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GB001903, 2003.
Amundson, R., Richter, D. D., Humphreys, G. S., Jobbagy, E. G., and Gaillardet, J.: Coupling between biota and earth materials in the Critical Zone, Elements, 3, 327–332, https://doi.org/10.2113/gselements.3.5.327, 2007.
Download
Short summary
Nitrogen is necessary for life; this element is found in all DNA and protein molecules on Earth. Nitrogen also regulates the CO2 uptake capacity of land ecosystems, with important consequences for climate change. Here we provide evidence for a new source of nitrogen that is found in many of the rock materials on which natural ecosystems form. The idea that rocks are a widely distributed source of nitrogen challenges the standard paradigm of botany, soil, and ecosystem science.
Special issue