This study examines the difference between a deciduous and coniferous forest stand exposed to elevated atmospheric nitrogen deposition with respect to the organic and mineral soil horizons and the aboveground and belowground biomass. Furthermore, the rate of nitrogen transformation processes is compared, after addition of isotopes.
Due to rising societal demands for bio-based building materials and wood-derived energy sources, and climate change leading to more severe droughts and tree mortality, forests canopies are expected to become more open across Europe. This increase in canopy openness will not only affect plant growth and competition processes within the understorey of these forests, but is also expected to trigger understorey responses to other global-change ...
We hypothesize that increased environmental nitrogen deposition affects plant diversity and plant productivity. These changes may affect airborne pollen distribution, abundance, and allergen potency. Therefore, environmental nitrogen deposition can directly and indirectly have an impact on aeroallergens and the prevalence and severity of allergenic diseases (figure 1). The general objective of this project is to understand how ...
The main goal of NITROPOL-BE is to understand the influence of nitrogen deposition on the allergy burden due to pollen in Belgium, corrected for possible disturbance by air pollution and climate.
The current rise in prevalence of allergies to aeroallergens is incompletely understood and attributed to interactions between environmental changes such as air pollution and climate warming, and lifestyle changes. One of the possible, yet unexplored, additional drivers of increasing aeroallergen and allergy prevalence is nitrogen deposition. Increased nitrogen deposition leads to eutrophication of our flora. It has been ...
The principal purpose of this study is to determine the interactive effects of enhanced N inputs, climate warming, and management-driven forest understorey light availability on the performance of forest plants, and the composition and diversity of understorey communities. To address these research questions, we will use a database of forest plant resurveys and conduct nitrogen, temperature, and light manipulation experiments.