Theory 33/Competing Rates/Nitrogen cycling
Nitrogen Retention Is a Balance
The claim
Whether an ecosystem retains nitrogen is set by the ratio of biological uptake to microbial loss rather than by nitrogen input.
01Mechanism
Input is retained only if uptake and immobilisation exceed denitrification and leaching; saturated systems lose most of what they receive.
02Prediction
Retention should track the ratio across sites.
03Refutation
Retention tracking input would remove the loss terms.