Nutrient Use Efficiency of Southern South America Proteaceae Species. Are there General Patterns in the Proteaceae Family?

Abstract

Plants from the Proteaceae family can thrive in old, impoverished soil with extremely low phosphorus (P) content, such as those typically found in South Western Australia (SWA) and South Africa. The South Western (SW) Australian Proteaceae species have developed strategies to deal with P scarcity, such as the high capacity to re-mobilize P from senescent to young leaves and the efficient use of P for carbon fixation. In Southern South America, six Proteaceae species grow in younger soils than those of SWA, with a wide variety of climatic and edaphic conditions. However, strategies in the nutrient use efficiency of Southern South (SS) American Proteaceae species growing in their natural ecosystems remain widely unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate nutrient resorption efficiency and the photosynthetic nutrients use efficiency by SS American Proteaceae species, naturally growing in different sites along a very extensive latitudinal gradient. Mature and senescent leaves of the six SS American Proteaceae species (Embothrium coccineum, Gevuina avellana, Orites myrtoidea Lomatia hirsuta, L. ferruginea, and L. dentata), as well as, soil samples were collected in nine sites from southern Chile and were subjected to chemical analyses. Nutrient resorption (P and nitrogen) efficiency in leaves was estimated in all species inhabiting the nine sites evaluated, whereas, the photosynthetic P use efficiency (PPUE) and photosynthetic nitrogen (N) use efficiency (PNUE) per leaf unit were determined in two sites with contrasting nutrient availability. Our study exhibit for the first time a data set related to nutrient use efficiency in the leaves of the six SS American Proteaceae, revealing that for all species and sites, P and N resorption efficiencies were on average 47.7 and 50.6%, respectively. No correlation was found between leaf nutrient (P and N) resorption efficiency and soil attributes. Further, different responses in PPUE and PNUE were found among species and, contrary to our expectations, a higher nutrient use efficiency in the nutrient poorest soil was not found. We conclude that SS American Proteaceae species did not show a general pattern in the nutrient use efficiency among them neither with others Proteaceae species reported in the literature.

Photosynthetic Nutrient and Water Use Efficiency of Cucumis sativus under Contrasting Soil Nutrient and Lignosulfonate Levels

“…Delgado et al [ 30 ] reported that photosynthetic nutrient use efficiency (mainly PNUE and PPUE), is, in general, higher in soil with higher nutrient availability. Our results are consistent with this finding.…”

The impact of recent land-use change in the Araucaria araucana forest in northern Patagonia

“…At Koywija, the decline in Nothofagus dombeyi -type pollen does not coincide with an increase in Poaceae, but with the appearance and increase in pollen from Lomatia hirsuta . Indeed, Lomatia hirsuta , a low-growing tree, is physiologically adapted to nutrient-poor soils and hydraulic stress (Alberdi, 1995; Delgado et al, 2018) and it has been reported to grow rapidly after fire and grazing or in abandoned farmlands (Donoso and Escobar, 2006; Raffaele and Veblen, 1998). These characteristics make it a potential disturbance indicator; however, the low pollen production requires Lomatia hirsuta to be abundant before the pollen type is registered.…”

“…At Koywija, the decline in Nothofagus dombeyi-type pollen does not coincide with an increase in Poaceae, but with the appearance and increase in pollen from Lomatia hirsuta. Indeed, Lomatia hirsuta, a low-growing tree, is physiologically adapted to nutrient-poor soils and hydraulic stress (Alberdi, 1995;Delgado et al, 2018) and it has been reported to grow rapidly after fire and grazing or in abandoned farmlands Pollen percentages in black, ×10 exaggeration light-gray silhouettes. Microscopic charcoal particles expressed as percentage of the terrestrial pollen sum.…”

Contrasting responses of cluster roots formation induced by phosphorus and nitrogen supply in Embothrium coccineum populations from different geographical origin

“…Mat, Table S2), despite the seeds came from the site with the higher P availability in the soil. Thus, considering the higher or lower capacity of P uptake from the soil and the seed P concentration, these plants can have a further capacity of P translocation to seeds to ensure germination of the next generation (Zúñiga-Feest et al 2015;Delgado et al 2018). More investigations about P use efficiency are necessary to understand this differential performance among populations.…”

“…E. coccineum has a naturally patchy distribution in woodland scrub, typically occurring in gaps, open areas or along roadsides and it is rarely dominant wherever it occurs. (Rodríguez et al 1983;Alberdi and Donoso 2004;Souto et al 2009;Delgado et al 2018).…”