Plants adapted to nutrient limitation allocate less biomass into stems in an arid-hot grassland.
New Phytol
; 211(4): 1232-40, 2016 09.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27101947
ABSTRACT
Biomass allocation can exert a great influence on plant resource acquisition and nutrient use. However, the role of biomass allocation strategies in shaping plant community composition under nutrient limitations remains poorly addressed. We hypothesized that species-specific allocation strategies can affect plant adaptation to nutrient limitations, resulting in species turnover and changes in community-level biomass allocations across nutrient gradients. In this study, we measured species abundance and the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in leaves and soil nutrients in an arid-hot grassland. We quantified species-specific allocation parameters for stems vs leaves based on allometric scaling relationships. Species-specific stem vs leaf allocation parameters were weighted with species abundances to calculate the community-weighted means driven by species turnover. We found that the community-weighted means of biomass allocation parameters were significantly related to the soil nutrient gradient as well as to leaf stoichiometry, indicating that species-specific allocation strategies can affect plant adaptation to nutrient limitations in the studied grassland. Species that allocate less to stems than leaves tend to dominate nutrient-limited environments. The results support the hypothesis that species-specific allocations affect plant adaptation to nutrient limitations. The allocation trade-off between stems and leaves has the potential to greatly affect plant distribution across nutrient gradients.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Fósforo
/
Adaptación Fisiológica
/
Tallos de la Planta
/
Biomasa
/
Pradera
/
Calor
/
Nitrógeno
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
New Phytol
Asunto de la revista:
BOTANICA
Año:
2016
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China