Nitrogen budget in a Chihuahuan desert grassland long-term nitrogen fertilization experiment at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge

Although the negative consequences of increased nitrogen (N) supply on plant communities and soil chemistry are well known, most studies have focused on mesic grasslands, and the fate of added N in arid and semi-arid ecosystems remains unclear. To study the impacts of long-term increased N deposition on ecosystem N-pools, we sampled a 26-year-long fertilization (10 g N m-2 yr-1) experiment in the northern Chihuahuan Desert at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) in New Mexico. To determine the fate of the added N, we measured multiple soil, microbial, and plant N pools in shallow soils at three time points across the 2020 growing season.