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Visualizing land‐use and management complexity within biogeochemical cycles of an agricultural landscape

Nitzsche, Kai Nils ; Verch, Gernot ; Premke, Katrin ; Gessler, Arthur ; Kayler, Zachary E. (2022)
Visualizing land‐use and management complexity within biogeochemical cycles of an agricultural landscape.
In: Ecosphere, 7 (5)
doi: 10.26083/tuprints-00022532
Article, Secondary publication, Publisher's Version

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Item Type: Article
Type of entry: Secondary publication
Title: Visualizing land‐use and management complexity within biogeochemical cycles of an agricultural landscape
Language: English
Date: 2022
Place of Publication: Darmstadt
Publisher: Wiley
Journal or Publication Title: Ecosphere
Volume of the journal: 7
Issue Number: 5
Collation: 16 Seiten
DOI: 10.26083/tuprints-00022532
Corresponding Links:
Origin: Secondary publication service
Abstract:

Crop fields are cultivated across continuities of soil, topography, and local climate that drive biological processes and nutrient cycling at the landscape scale; yet land management and agricultural research are often performed at the field scale, potentially neglecting the context of the surrounding landscape. Adding to this complexity is the overlap of ecosystems and their biogeochemical legacies, as a patchwork of crops fields, natural grasslands, and forests develops across the landscape. Furthermore, as new technologies and policies are introduced, management practices change, including fertilization strategies, which further alter biological productivity and nutrient cycling. All of these environmental, biological, and historical legacies are potentially recorded in the isotopic signal of plant, soil, and sediment organic matter across the landscape. We mapped over 1500 plant, soil, and sediment isotopic values and generated an isotopic landscape (isoscape) over a 40-km² agricultural site in NE Germany. We observed distinct patterns in the isotopic composition of organic matter sampled from the landscape that clearly reflect the landscape complexity. C₃ crop intrinsic water-use efficiency reflected a precipitation gradient, while native forest and grassland plant species did not, suggesting that native plants are more adapted to predominant climatic conditions. δ¹³Csoil patterns reflected both the long-term input of plant organic matter, which was affected by the local climate conditions, and the repeated cultivation of corn. Soil organic matter ¹⁵N isotopic values also revealed spatial differences in fertilization regimes. Forest fragments, in which the nitrogen cycle was relatively open, were more water-use efficient. Sediments from small water bodies received substantial inputs from surrounding field vegetation but were also affected by seasonal drying. These isotopic maps can be used to visualize large spatial heterogeneity and complexity, and they are a powerful means to interpret past and current trends in agricultural landscapes.

Uncontrolled Keywords: agricultural landscape; isoscape; land management; land-use change and impacts; spatial visualization; stable isotopes
Status: Publisher's Version
URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-225329
Classification DDC: 500 Science and mathematics > 550 Earth sciences and geology
Divisions: 11 Department of Materials and Earth Sciences > Earth Science > Department of Soil Mineralogy and Soil Chemistry
Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2022 12:36
Last Modified: 27 Apr 2023 07:30
URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/22532
PPN: 50728576X
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