The Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africa

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorNyaga, Justine M
dc.contributor.authorNeff, Jason C
dc.contributor.authorCramer, Michael D
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-07T09:21:40Z
dc.date.available2015-08-07T09:21:40Z
dc.date.issued2015-05
dc.description.abstractThe Strandveld mediterranean-ecosystem of the west coast of South Africa supports floristically diverse vegetation growing on mostly nutrient-poor aeolian sands and extending from the Atlantic Ocean tens of kilometers inland. The cold Benguela current upwelling interacts with warm onshore southerly winds in summer causing coastal fogs in this region. We hypothesized that fog and other forms of occult precipitation contribute moisture and nutrients to the vegetation. We measured occult precipitation over one year along a transect running inland in the direction of the prevailing wind and compared the nutrient concentrations with those in rainwater. Occult deposition rates of P, N, K, Mg, Ca, Na, Al and Fe all decreased with distance from the ocean. Furthermore, ratios of cations to Na were similar to those of seawater, suggesting a marine origin for these. In contrast, N and P ratios in occult precipitation were higher than in seawater. We speculate that this is due to marine foam contributing to occult precipitation. Nutrient loss in leaf litter from dominant shrub species was measured to indicate nutrient demand. We estimated that occult precipitation could meet the demand of the dominant shrubby species for annual N, P, K and Ca. Of these species, those with small leaves intercepted more moisture and nutrients than those with larger leaves and could take up foliar deposits of glycine, NO3-, NH4 + and Li (as tracer for K) through leaf surfaces. We conclude that occult deposition together with rainfall deposition are potentially important nutrient and moisture sources for the Strandveld vegetation that contribute to this vegetation being floristically distinct from neighbouring nutrient-poor Fynbos vegetation.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationNyaga, J. M., Neff, J. C., & Cramer, M. D. (2015). The Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africa. <i>PLOS ONE</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13641en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationNyaga, Justine M, Jason C Neff, and Michael D Cramer "The Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africa." <i>PLOS ONE</i> (2015) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13641en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNyaga, J.M., Neff, J.C., Cramer, M.D. (2015). The Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africa. PLoS ONE, 10(5): e0126225. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126225en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Nyaga, Justine M AU - Neff, Jason C AU - Cramer, Michael D AB - The Strandveld mediterranean-ecosystem of the west coast of South Africa supports floristically diverse vegetation growing on mostly nutrient-poor aeolian sands and extending from the Atlantic Ocean tens of kilometers inland. The cold Benguela current upwelling interacts with warm onshore southerly winds in summer causing coastal fogs in this region. We hypothesized that fog and other forms of occult precipitation contribute moisture and nutrients to the vegetation. We measured occult precipitation over one year along a transect running inland in the direction of the prevailing wind and compared the nutrient concentrations with those in rainwater. Occult deposition rates of P, N, K, Mg, Ca, Na, Al and Fe all decreased with distance from the ocean. Furthermore, ratios of cations to Na were similar to those of seawater, suggesting a marine origin for these. In contrast, N and P ratios in occult precipitation were higher than in seawater. We speculate that this is due to marine foam contributing to occult precipitation. Nutrient loss in leaf litter from dominant shrub species was measured to indicate nutrient demand. We estimated that occult precipitation could meet the demand of the dominant shrubby species for annual N, P, K and Ca. Of these species, those with small leaves intercepted more moisture and nutrients than those with larger leaves and could take up foliar deposits of glycine, NO3-, NH4 + and Li (as tracer for K) through leaf surfaces. We conclude that occult deposition together with rainfall deposition are potentially important nutrient and moisture sources for the Strandveld vegetation that contribute to this vegetation being floristically distinct from neighbouring nutrient-poor Fynbos vegetation. DA - 2015-05 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0126225 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - PLOS ONE LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 SM - 1932-6203 T1 - The Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africa TI - The Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13641 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126225
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/13641
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126225
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationNyaga JM, Neff JC, Cramer MD. The Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africa. PLOS ONE. 2015; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13641.en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisherPLOSen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Biological Sciencesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_ZA
dc.sourcePLOS ONEen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://www.plosone.org/
dc.titleThe Contribution of Occult Precipitation to Nutrient Deposition on the West Coast of South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsPrecipitation and seaweeden_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsEcosystemen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsWest coasten_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
NyagaNutrientDeposition2015.pdf
Size:
2.69 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.72 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Journal Articles