Nitrogen in forest communities: the alteration of its importance

Abstract

During the last decades the effect of nitrogen on forest ecosystems has totally changed: Formerly, vegetation growth was limited by nitrogen, today nitrogen must be seen as a pollutant. The increased deposition of nitrogen into forest-ecosystems affects not only the vegetation composition, but also endangers the meaning of forests as a source for drinking water. in the article the impact of increased nitrogen availability on forest ecosystems is shown. Especially the possibilities and advantages of using vegetation as an indicator for the impact of nitrogen are discussed and compared with methods of technical measurements. Based on these results it is strongly recommended to enhance the explanatory power of technical measurements by additionally carrying out vegetation analyses.