Anthropogenic N - A global issue examined at regional scale from soils, to fungi, roots and tree rings

Globally increasing anthropogenic airborne emissions of reactive nitrogen (N) generate several environmental issues that require investigating how N accumulation modifies the N cycle. Tree-ring delta N-15 series may help understanding past and current perturbations in the forest N cycle. Although several studies have addressed this issue, most of them were of local scale or based on short delta N-15 series. The development of this environmental indicator however would benefit from examining, at the regional scale, the relationships of long tree-ring series with soil N biogeochemical processes. Here we explore these links for tree stands of the oil-sands region in northern Alberta, and the coal-fired power plants region in central Alberta, Canada. We characterize the tree-ring delta N-15 trends, the N modification rates and bacterial and fungal communities of soil samples collected in the immediate surrounding of the characterized trees. The dataset suggests that specific soil pH, and N-cycling bacterial and fungal communities influence tree-ring delta N-15 responses to anthropogenic emissions, correlating either directly or inversely. Overall, tree-ring delta N-15 series may record changes in the forest-N cycle, but their interpretation requires understanding key soil biogeochemical processes. "In nature nothing exists alone", Rachel Carson.