Wet deposition of nitrogen (N) occurs in oxidized (nitrate) and reduced (ammonium) forms. Whether one form drives vegetation change more than the other is widely debated, as field evidence has been lacking. We are manipulating N form in wet deposition to an ombrotrophic bog, Whim (Scottish Borders), and here report nine years of results. Ammonium and nitrate were provided in rainwater spray as NH 4 Cl or NaNO 3 at 8, 24 or 56...

Previous studies have shown a correspondence between the abundance of particular plant species and methane flux. Here, we apply multivariate analyses, and weighted averaging, to assess the suitability of vegetation composition as a predictor of methane flux. We developed a functional classification of the vegetation, in terms of a number of plant traits expected to influence methane production and transport, and compared this...

Although the effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on species composition are relatively well known, the roles of the different forms of nitrogen, in particular gaseous ammonia ( NH 3 ), have not been tested in the field. Since 2002, we have manipulated the form of N deposition to an ombrotrophic bog, W him, on deep peat in southern S cotland, with low ambient N (wet + dry = 8 kg N ha −1 yr −1 ) and S (4 kg S ha −1 yr −1...