Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 5 April 1974:
Vol. 184. no. 4132, pp. 60 - 62
DOI: 10.1126/science.184.4132.60
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Barrier Island Forest Ecosystem: Role of Meteorologic Nutrient Inputs

Henry W. Art 1, F. Herbert Bormann 2, Garth K. Voigt 2, and George M. Woodwell 3

1 Biology Department and Center for Environmental Studies, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachutsetts 01267
2 School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511
3 Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973

The Sunken Forest, located on Fire Island, a barrier island in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, New York, is an ecosystem in which most of the basic cation input is in the form of salt spray. This meteorologic input is sufficient to compensate for the lack of certain nutrients in the highly weathered sandy soils. In other ecosystems these nutrients are generally supplied by weathering of soil particles. The compensatory effect of meteorologic input allows for primary production rates in the Sunken Forest similar to those of inland temperate forests.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Salt spray differentially affects water status, necrosis, and growth in coastal sandplain heathland species.
M. E. Griffiths and C. M. Orians (2003)
Am. J. Botany 90, 1188-1196
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Development of Magnesian Carbonates in Quaternary Soils on the Island of Hawaii.
(2002)
Journal of Sedimentary Research 72, 158-165


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)