Biodiversity of acid grasslands in the atlantic regions of Europe: the impact of nitrogen deposition

Carly J. Stevens (1) , Cecilia Dupre (2) , Edu Dorland (3) , Cassandre Gaudnik (4) , David J. G. Gowing (1) , Albert Bleeker (5) , Martin Diekmann (2) , Didier Alard (4) , Roland Bobbink (6) , David Fowler (7) , Emmanuel Corcket (4) , J. Owen Mountford (7) , Vigdis Vandvik (8) , Per Arild Aarrestad (9) , Serge Muller (10) , Nancy B. Dise (11)

1 Open University
2 University of Bremen
3 Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht]
4 BioGeCo - Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés
5 ECN - Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands
6 Radboud University [Nijmegen]
7 NERC - Natural Environment Research Council
8 UiB - University of Bergen
9 NINA - Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
10 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
11 MMU - Manchester Metropolitan University

Reduction in the species richness of acid grasslands along a gradient of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has previously been demonstrated in the UK (Stevens, Dise, Mountford, Gowing, Science 303:1876–1879, 2004). Further surveys of acid grasslands in the UK confirm this relationship. This chapter reports an examination of the relationship across the Atlantic region of Europe. Examining the cover of functional groups across this gradient reveals that forb cover is strongly reduced along the gradient of N deposition.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Carly J. Stevens, Cecilia Dupre, Edu Dorland, Cassandre Gaudnik, David J. G. Gowing, et al.. Biodiversity of acid grasslands in the atlantic regions of Europe: the impact of nitrogen deposition. Nitrogen deposition, critical loads and biodiversity, Springer, 2014, 978-94-007-7938-9. ⟨10.1007/978-94-007-7939-6_26⟩. ⟨hal-02798062⟩