Soil nitrogen response to shrub encroachment in a degrading semi-arid grassland

Turpin-Jelfs, Thomas; Michaelides, Katerina; Biederman, Joel A.; Anesio, Alexandre M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-369-2019

Articles | Volume 16, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-369-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-369-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 2

Research article

|

24 Jan 2019

Research article |

| 24 Jan 2019

Soil nitrogen response to shrub encroachment in a degrading semi-arid grassland

Thomas Turpin-Jelfs, Katerina Michaelides, Joel A. Biederman, and Alexandre M. Anesio

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Final revised paper (published on 24 Jan 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 23 Jul 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Comments to Turpin-Welfs et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 30 Aug 2018
- RC2: 'Subject correction: "Comments to Turpin-Jelfs"', Anonymous Referee #1, 30 Aug 2018
  - AC1: 'Reply to 'Subject correction: "Comments to Turpin-Jelfs"'', Thomas Turpin-Jelfs, 16 Nov 2018
- AC3: 'Reply to 'Comments to Turpin-Welfs et al.'', Thomas Turpin-Jelfs, 16 Nov 2018
RC3: 'Biogeosciences MS No.: bg-2018-331 Soil nitrogen response to shrub encroachment in a degrading semiarid grassland', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Oct 2018
- AC4: 'Reply to 'Biogeosciences MS No.: bg-2018-331 Soil nitrogen response to shrub encroachment in a degrading semiarid grassland'', Thomas Turpin-Jelfs, 16 Nov 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (27 Nov 2018) by Lutz Merbold

AR by Anna Wenzel on behalf of the Authors (04 Dec 2018) Author's response

ED: Publish as is (07 Jan 2019) by Lutz Merbold

Short summary

Increasing shrub cover promotes land degradation in semi-arid grasslands and has the potential to impact the soil nitrogen pool, which is essential to primary production. Our study showed that increasing shrub cover concentrates soil nitrogen into localised patches beneath shrub canopies. Further, we determined that increasing shrub cover inhibits inputs of nitrogen by the soil microbial community. Thus, we conclude this phenomenon can perturb nitrogen cycling in these ecosystems.