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A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos?

Anthropogenic activities create nitrogenous pollutants which threaten the existence of lowland fynbos, comprising 92 Red Data Book species and 14 Cape Flats endemics. A regional Nitrogen budget was constructed through the collation of existing data for the Cape Metropolitan Area. An NOx inventory ha...

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Main Author: Kathawaroo, Deshika
Other Authors: Bond, William J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2017
Subjects:
Botany
Ecology
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access_status_str Open Access
author Kathawaroo, Deshika
author2 Bond, William J
author_browse Bond, William J
Kathawaroo, Deshika
author_facet Bond, William J
Kathawaroo, Deshika
author_sort Kathawaroo, Deshika
collection Thesis
description Anthropogenic activities create nitrogenous pollutants which threaten the existence of lowland fynbos, comprising 92 Red Data Book species and 14 Cape Flats endemics. A regional Nitrogen budget was constructed through the collation of existing data for the Cape Metropolitan Area. An NOx inventory has revealed that vehicles emit 66 % of the total NOx emissions into the atmosphere. The maximum potential N deposition is 184 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ for the lowlands. Air quality in an industrial area, Goodwood, has revealed that a large proportion of the emissions remain in the air and have the potential to deposit 33 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Atmospheric N deposited on unimpacted coastal fynbos is 1.99 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Thus remnant patches of lowland fynbos are threatened by replacement by grasslands as a result of atmospheric N inputs. Direct measurements of soil N pools are required, since signals of leaching in rivers may be premature as N accumulating in soil pools may not yet have reached saturation point. NH₃ emissions, wet and dry N deposition, and atmospheric transport models are required in order to construct a N budget for the CMA. Thereafter, appropriate preventative strategies can be devised in order to prevent the replacement of remnant patches of lowland fynbos.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/25968
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:54.099Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
publisherStr Department of Biological Sciences
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/25968 A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos? Kathawaroo, Deshika Bond, William J Stock, William D Botany Ecology Anthropogenic activities create nitrogenous pollutants which threaten the existence of lowland fynbos, comprising 92 Red Data Book species and 14 Cape Flats endemics. A regional Nitrogen budget was constructed through the collation of existing data for the Cape Metropolitan Area. An NOx inventory has revealed that vehicles emit 66 % of the total NOx emissions into the atmosphere. The maximum potential N deposition is 184 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ for the lowlands. Air quality in an industrial area, Goodwood, has revealed that a large proportion of the emissions remain in the air and have the potential to deposit 33 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Atmospheric N deposited on unimpacted coastal fynbos is 1.99 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Thus remnant patches of lowland fynbos are threatened by replacement by grasslands as a result of atmospheric N inputs. Direct measurements of soil N pools are required, since signals of leaching in rivers may be premature as N accumulating in soil pools may not yet have reached saturation point. NH₃ emissions, wet and dry N deposition, and atmospheric transport models are required in order to construct a N budget for the CMA. Thereafter, appropriate preventative strategies can be devised in order to prevent the replacement of remnant patches of lowland fynbos. 2017-11-01T07:31:11Z 2017-11-01T07:31:11Z 2000 2017-06-20T08:32:16Z Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc (Hons) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25968 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Botany
Ecology
Kathawaroo, Deshika
A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos?
thesis_degree_str Bachelor's / Honours
title A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos?
title_full A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos?
title_fullStr A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos?
title_full_unstemmed A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos?
title_short A nitrogen budget for the Cape Metropolitan area : is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos?
title_sort nitrogen budget for the cape metropolitan area is nitrogen enrichment occurring in the soils of remnant patches of lowland fynbos
topic Botany
Ecology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25968
work_keys_str_mv AT kathawaroodeshika anitrogenbudgetforthecapemetropolitanareaisnitrogenenrichmentoccurringinthesoilsofremnantpatchesoflowlandfynbos
AT kathawaroodeshika nitrogenbudgetforthecapemetropolitanareaisnitrogenenrichmentoccurringinthesoilsofremnantpatchesoflowlandfynbos

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