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Late-season flooding regimes influence the accretion and partitioning of nitrogen and biomass in silver maple seedlings

Informally Refereed

Abstract

To better understand how late-season flooding affects survival, growth, N accretion, and N partitioning in silver maple, we subjected 1-year-old seedlings to continuous (July-November), summer (July-September), and fall (September-November) root-flooding regimes outdoors in plastic tanks. Only root growth was affected by flooding as root biomass measured in September and November was reduced in the summer and continuously flooded seedlings. Seedling N accretion was decreased only in the continuous flooding treatment. Fall flooding resulted in earlier resorption of foliar N and leaf abscission than in controls and recovering summer-flooded seedlings, thereby insuring conservation of foliar N under fall flood stress conditions. Our results indicate that silver maple seedlings can tolerate summer and fall flooding and reveal how silver maple seedlings grow, take up, and partition N as they adapt to flooding under altered hydrologic regimes.

Parent Publication

Citation

Kaelke, Christopher M.; Dawson, Jeffery O. 2003. Late-season flooding regimes influence the accretion and partitioning of nitrogen and biomass in silver maple seedlings. In: Van Sambeek, J. W.; Dawson, Jeffery O.; Ponder Jr., Felix; Loewenstein, Edward F.; Fralish, James S., eds. Proceedings of the 13th Central Hardwood Forest Conference; Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-234. St. Paul, MN: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Research Station: 167-176
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/15739