Response of plant nutrient stoichiometry to fertilization varied with plant tissues in a tropical forest

Mo, Qifeng; Zou, Binglin; Li, Yingwen; Chen, Yao; Zhang, Weixin; Mao, Rong; Ding, Yongzhen; Wang, Jun; Lu, Xiankai; Li, Xiaobo; Tang, Jianwu; Li, Zhian; Wang, Faming

doi:10.1038/srep14605

Cited by 55 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…Small within‐species sample size and high species turnover among sites prevented us from assessing how much of this response was explained by taxonomic or environmental controls. In Amazonian tree species, foliar P and Ca concentrations are more sensitive to environmental variation in soil availability than N and Mg concentrations (Fyllas et al ., ), and experimental nutrient addition in tropical forests show that both foliar and wood P concentrations respond more strongly to nutrient addition than do N concentrations (Harrington et al ., ; Ostertag, ; Schreeg et al ., ; Mo et al ., ). Wood Ca and P may also be more sensitive than other elements to soil conditions due to respective variation in the soil available nutrient pools, because the ranges of soil available Ca (115‐fold) and P (90‐fold) were vastly greater than the variation in Mg (38‐fold), K (20‐fold) and inorganic N (sixfold) among the 10 plots sampled (Table ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Variation in wood nutrients along a tropical soil fertility gradient

2016

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SummaryWood contains the majority of the nutrients in tropical trees, yet controls over wood nutrient concentrations and their function are poorly understood.We measured wood nutrient concentrations in 106 tree species in 10 forest plots spanning a regional fertility gradient in Panama. For a subset of species, we quantified foliar nutrients and wood density to test whether wood nutrients scale with foliar nutrients at the species level, or wood nutrient storage increases with wood density as predicted by the wood economics spectrum.Wood nutrient concentrations varied enormously among species from fourfold in nitrogen (N) to > 30-fold in calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and phosphorus (P). Community-weighted mean wood nutrient concentrations correlated positively with soil Ca, K, Mg and P concentrations. Wood nutrients scaled positively with leaf nutrients, supporting the hypothesis that nutrient allocation is conserved across plant organs. Wood P was most sensitive to variation in soil nutrient availability, and significant radial declines in wood P indicated that tropical trees retranslocate P as sapwood transitions to heartwood. Wood P decreased with increasing wood density, suggesting that low wood P and dense wood are traits associated with tree species persistence on low fertility soils.Substantial variation among species and communities in wood nutrient concentrations suggests that allocation of nutrients to wood, especially P, influences species distributions and nutrient dynamics in tropical forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Variation in wood nutrients along a tropical soil fertility gradient

2016

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“…) and trees (Mo et al . ) suggest that changes in nutrient concentrations after nutrient addition may become more visible in older leaves, stem tissue, or roots because these tissues can be used as nutrient reservoirs and the foliar N:P ratios of young leaves need to be maintained in the range of optimal performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting species responses to continued nitrogen and phosphorus addition in tropical montane forest tree seedlings

et al. 2017

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Global changes in nutrient deposition rates are likely to have profound effects on plant communities, particularly in the nutrient‐limited systems of the tropics. We studied the effects of increased nutrient availability on the seedlings of six tree species in montane forests of southern Ecuador in situ. After five years of continued N, P, or N+P addition, naturally grown seedlings of each of the two most common species at each elevation (1000, 2000, and 3000 m asl) were harvested for analyses of leaf morphology, nutrient content, herbivory, and tissue biomass allocation. Most species showed increased foliar N and P concentrations after addition of each respective element. Leaf tissue N:P ratios of >20 in the control plants of all species suggest that P is more growth‐limiting in these forests than N. Leaf morphological responses to nutrient addition were species and nutrient specific, with some species (Hedyosmum purparescens, Graffenrieda emarginata) exhibiting increased specific leaf area (SLA), and others (Graffenrieda harlingii) increased leaf area ratios (LAR). Pouteria torta (1000 m) had lower SLA and LAR after P addition. Increased herbivory was only evident in G. emarginata (after N and N+P addition). Only the species from 3000 m asl modified biomass allocation after nutrient addition. In general, N and N+P addition more strongly affected the species studied at the upper elevations, whereas P addition had a similar range of effects on the species at all elevations. We conclude that the responses of the studied tropical montane forest tree seedlings to chronic N and P addition are highly species‐specific and that successful adaptation to increased nutrient availability will depend on species‐specific morphological and physiological plasticity.

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“…The soil is classified as a latosol developed from granite (Wang et al, ). Annual wet N deposition in the region was c. 40 kg N/ha in 2011 and 2012 (Chen et al, ; Mo et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Briefly, for every fertilizer application, 476.6 g NH 4 NO 3 (equal to 166.6 g N) and/or 808 g Na 2 HPO 4 (equal to 166.6 g P) were dissolved in 30 L groundwater and then applied to the corresponding plots uniformly using a backpack sprayer near the soil surface; 30 L of groundwater was also applied to control plots (Li et al, ; Wang et al, ). The amount of added water in each plot was equivalent to 0.08% and 0.35% of rainfall inputs in the wet and dry seasons, respectively (Mo et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foliar phosphorus fractions reveal how tropical plants maintain photosynthetic rates despite low soil phosphorus availability

Sayer

et al. 2019

Functional Ecology

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Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are essential nutrients for plant metabolism, and their availability often limits primary productivity. Whereas the effects of N availability on photosynthetic capacity are well established, we still know relatively little about the effects of P availability at a foliar level, especially in P‐limited tropical forests. We examined photosynthetic capacity, leaf mass per area (LMA) and foliar P fractions in five woody plant species after 6 years of N and P fertilization in a lowland tropical forest. Foliar N:P ratios indicated P limitation of the unfertilized plants; accordingly, photosynthetic P‐use efficiency (PPUE) and LMA decreased with P addition, and foliar N and P concentrations increased, whereas N addition had little effect on measured foliar traits. However, P addition enhanced photosynthetic capacity only in one species and not in other four species. We then assessed plant acclimation to low P availability by quantifying four fractions of foliar P representing different functional pools: structural P, metabolic P (including inorganic P), nucleic acid P, and residual P. We found that P addition enhanced the concentrations of metabolic, structural, and nucleic acid P fractions in all species, but the magnitude of the effect was species‐specific. Our findings indicate that tropical species acclimate to low P availability by altering allocation of foliar P to meet the demand of P for photosynthesis. Importantly, species typical of lowland tropical forests in East Asia maintained their photosynthetic rate under low P availability. We conclude that P limitation of leaf photosynthetic capacity may not be as common as previously assumed due to plant acclimation mechanisms in low‐P tropical forests. Species‐specific strategies to allocate P to different foliar fractions represent a potentially important adaptive mechanism for plants in P‐limited systems.

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Response of plant nutrient stoichiometry to fertilization varied with plant tissues in a tropical forest

Cited by 55 publications

References 46 publications

Variation in wood nutrients along a tropical soil fertility gradient

Variation in wood nutrients along a tropical soil fertility gradient

Contrasting species responses to continued nitrogen and phosphorus addition in tropical montane forest tree seedlings

Foliar phosphorus fractions reveal how tropical plants maintain photosynthetic rates despite low soil phosphorus availability

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