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Factors that regulate the cycling of nitrogen are important determinants of the metabolism and organization of forest ecosystems (Gosz 1981; Melillo 1981). The nitrogen cycle includes a number of important gaseous components and is strongly regulated by biological processes, particularly those mediated via microbial populations. The cycle of this element is closely coupled to the cycles of other essential elements (e.g., C, S). Thus, the dynamics of nitrogen may largely regulate the productivity of forests and their response to intensive management and other exogenous disturbance (Kimmins 1977; Swank and Waide 1980; Vitousek 1981; Johnson 1984). Because nitrogen transformations are so tightly coupled to other bio-geochemical processes, it is especially difficult to predict a priori impacts of human disturbance on forest metabolism and nitrogen cycling.