U.S.-Slovak Ecological Research on Responsiveness of Alpine Vegetation to Nitrogen Inputs

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This U.S.-Slovak project between William Bowman of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Lubos Halada of the Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, compares the responses of two alpine sites that differ in their rates and the temporal extent of nitrogen deposition due to pollution and nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization. The US site is at Niwot Ridge in the Front Range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains and the Slovak site is in the Western Tatra Mountains, near Mt. Salatin. The goal is to assess ecosystem responses over long periods to contrasting levels of chronic atmospheric nitrogen deposition, which historically have been very high in Europe and relatively low in the Rockies. The U.S. and Slovak teams will collaborate on experimental approaches to examining plant-soil feedback and on assessing the impact of environmental change on ecosystem function. Specifically they intend to examine: 1) the response to N and P fertilization of alpine vegetation which received high rates of N deposition for several decades; 2) the importance of plant species composition and abundance to N retention in the alpine soils, and 3) the degree to which changes in the plant species composition has occurred over the past one and two decades. Results should improve our basic knowledge of alpine systems where the ratio of N deposition to plant biomass is high relative to other ecosystems. If successful, the project also may lead to better global predictions of the consequences from available nitrogen. This ecological research project fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling experts in the United States and Central Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence.