Eucalypts and low phosphorus availability: between responsiveness and efficiency

Low phosphorus induces differential metabolic responses in eucalyptus species improving nutrient use efficiency

“…For example, roots of E. acmenoides had similar P concentrations when growing on low and sufficient P. But, leaves and stem of plants on sufficient P had higher concentrations than at low P. These results corroborate other studies with eucalypts and suggest that the relatively constant P concentrations in roots may exert a "buffering" control over translocation to the shoots, ensuring their demands (Mulligan, 1988). The lack of correlation between plant P concentration and biomass production suggests that greater P-uptake efficiency does not necessarily lead to higher plant growth and that plant P concentrations cannot be solely considered an indicator of the responsiveness of young eucalypts to P supply, supporting our previous results (Bulgarelli et al, 2019). In addition, observed in other crops (White et al, 2005;White and Hammond, 2008), our results show that selection for greater PUE does not appear to be an effective strategy for selecting eucalypt species to be cultivated on soils with low P availability.…”

“…Supporting the results of Bahar et al (2018) and Bulgarelli et al (2019) , we observed that the eucalypt species with higher biomass production did not necessarily present the highest photosynthetic rates. Although biomass production derived from CO 2 assimilation is only one of many factors influencing plant growth, other aspects, such as sucrose synthesis and transport, respiration and C partitioning, also significantly impact biomass production ( Hofius and Börnke, 2007 ).…”

“…At low P, fructose-6P levels significantly increased in leaves of E. globulus and E. acmenoides , unlike observed by Warren (2011) in seedlings of E. globulus . The low levels of fructose-6P in leaves of E. tereticornis may be related to its higher PPUE under low P, as previously reported in other eucalypts species ( Warren, 2011 ; Bulgarelli et al, 2019 ). Thus, it seems that eucalypts may have distinct responses to low P availability, deserving a more careful investigation.…”

“…Eucalypt plantations frequently cope with P limitation, showing visual symptoms of P deficiency and high responses to P-fertilisation ( Santana et al, 2002 ; Thomas et al, 2006 ). Recently, we used physiological and nutritional parameters to evaluate the ability of 24 species of eucalypts to grow under low and sufficient soil P conditions ( Bulgarelli et al, 2019 ). Considering that plants may be efficient to grow on low P and/or responsive to P inputs we may classify them into four groups: efficient and responsive, non-efficient and non-responsive, non-efficient and responsive, and efficient and non-responsive.…”

Impacts of long‐term fertilization on crop yield and microbial communities under rice–rapeseed rotation

“…Bulgarelli et al. (2019) found that the alpha diversity index of the fungal community was significantly decreased after continuous application of P fertilizer in eucalypts forest. There were also studies suggesting that long‐term application of P fertilizer increased the diversity of soil bacteria (Ling et al., 2017; Wasaki et al., 2018).…”