Allocation Strategies of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus at Species and Community Levels With Recovery After Wildfire

Abstract

Plant stoichiometry and nutrient allocation can reflect a plant’s adaptation to environmental nutrient changes. However, the allocation strategies of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) between leaf and fine root in response to wildfire have been poorly studied. Our primary objective was to elucidate the trade-off of elemental allocation between above- and belowground parts in response to the soil nutrient changes after a wildfire. We explored the allocation sloping exponents of C, N, and P between leaf and fine root at the species and community levels at four recovery periods (year 2, 10, 20, and 30) after moderately severe wildfire and one unburned treatment in boreal forests in Great Xing’an Mountains, northeast China. Compared with the unburned treatment, leaf C concentration decreased and fine root C increased at year 2 after recovery. The leaf N concentration at year 10 after recovery was higher than that of unburned treatment. Plant growth tended to be limited by P concentration at year 10 after recovery. Nutrient allocation between leaf and fine root differed between species and community levels, especially in the early recovery periods (i.e., 2 and 10 years). At the community level, the nutrient concentrations of the leaf changed more as compared to that of the fine root at year 2 after recovery when the fine root nutrients changed more than those of the leaf. The different C, N, and P allocation strategies advanced the understanding of plant adaptation to soil nutrient changes during the postfire ecosystem restoration.

Fine root dynamics and its contribution to soil organic carbon stocks with Caragana intermedia plantation development in alpine sandy land

“…Previous studies indicated that approximately 30–80% of SOC content is provided through the rapid turnover and decomposition of fine root ( Ruess et al., 2003 ). The production and turnover of fine root are very susceptible to genetic and environmental factors, such as stand age, soil temperature, soil water content, soil chemical, and physical properties ( Batkhuu et al., 2021 ; Jiang et al., 2021 ; Song et al., 2022 ). However, due to the invisibility of fine roots, it is difficult to sample, observe, and analyze, resulting in researches on the contribution of fine root to soil carbon pool are much less than those on aboveground parts ( Finér et al., 2011 ).…”