Tissue N content and 15N natural abundance in epilithic mosses for indicating atmospheric N deposition in the Guiyang area, SW China

Tissue N contents and δ15N signatures in 175 epilithic mosses were investigated from urban to rural sites in Guiyang (SW China) to determine atmospheric N deposition. Moss N contents (0.85–2.97%) showed a significant decrease from the urban area (mean = 2.24 ± 0.32%, 0–5 km) to the rural area (mean = 1.27 ± 0.13%, 20–25 km), indicating that the level of N deposition decreased away from the urban environment, while slightly higher N contents re-occurred at sites beyond 30 km, suggesting higher N deposition in more remote rural areas. Moss δ15N ranged from −12.50‰ to −1.39‰ and showed a clear bimodal distribution (−12‰ to −6‰ and −5‰ to −2‰), suggesting that there are two main sources for N deposition in the Guiyang area. More negative δ15N (mean = −8.87 ± 1.65‰) of urban mosses mainly indicated NH3 released from excretory wastes and sewage, while the less negative δ15N (from −3.83 ± 0.82‰ to −2.48 ± 0.95‰) of rural mosses were mainly influenced by agricultural NH3. With more negative values in the urban area than in the rural area, the pattern of moss δ15N variation in Guiyang was found to be opposite to cities where N deposition is dominated by NOx–N. Therefore, NHx–N is the dominant N form deposited in the Guiyang area, which is supported by higher NHx–N than NOx–N in local atmospheric deposition. From the data showing that moss is responding to NHx–N/NOx–N in deposition it can be further demonstrated that the variation of moss δ15N from the Guiyang urban to rural area was more likely controlled by the ratio of urban-NHx/agriculture-NHx than the ratio of NHx–N/NOx–N. The results of this study have extended knowledge of atmospheric N sources in city areas, showing that urban sewage discharge could be important in cities co-generic to Guiyang.