Deposition, Canopy and Soil Retention of Inorganic Nitrogen in a Subtropical Mixed Forest in Central-South China

Nitrogen deposition, leaching and retention were monitored in a subtropical mixed forest in central-south China. Bulk precipitation, throughfall, and stream water were monitored from January, 2001 to December, 2004. The research results showed that mean flux of inorganic nitrogen input was 3.136 g m
^-2
a
^-1
, net retention of nitrogen by forest canopy was 1.2516 g m
^-2
a
^-1
, and by soil profile of Shaoshan forest reached 1.6644 g m
^-2
a
^-1
, which indicated that most of nitrogen input (92.98%) was reserved in Shaoshan forest and Shaoshan forest is still a finer buffering system to nitrogen deposition.