PérezAvailable et al.:on-line Nitrogen at: http://www.newzealandecology.org/nzje/ fixation in a chronosequence 189 Patterns of biological nitrogen fixation during 60 000 years of forest development on volcanic soils from south-central Chile Cecilia A. Pérez1*, Frank M. Thomas2, Wladimir A. Silva1, Bernardo Segura3, Belen Gallardo4 and Juan J. Armesto1,4 1Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Las Palmeras 3425, Santiago, Chile 2Geobotany, Faculty of Regional and Environmental Sciences, Behringstraβe 21, Universität Trier, 54296 Trier, Germany 3Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y de Conservación de la Naturaleza, Universidad de Chile, Santa Rosa 11315, Santiago, Chile 4Departamento de Ecología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile *Author for correspondence (Email:
[email protected]) Published online: 9 April 2014 Abstract: Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a key process for ecosystem development on new substrates. On young volcanic substrates, the near absence of nitrogen (N) and the presence of available phosphorus (P) in the soil should stimulate the activity of diazotrophic, N-fixing, bacteria. Our main hypothesis is that ecosystem N gain through BNF is tightly coupled to the development of progressive and maximum phases of ecosystem succession, as element contents build up. We investigated ecosystem development in a well-established 60 000-year-old chronosequence in Llaima volcano, south-central Chile. Tree basal areas and total carbon (C), N and P contents in soils showed declining trends over the millennial chronosequence following maximum values between 326 and 3470 years of succession. Maximum rates of BNF (3–6 kg N ha–1 year–1) were recorded in the interval from 776 to 3470 years of substrate age, partly associated with high soil C and P contents, and with the lowest denitrification rates in the chronosequence (0.17–0.42 kg N ha–1 year–1).