Correction: Plant economics spectrum governs leaf nitrogen and phosphorus resorption in subtropical transitional forests.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ma B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC11337581 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Correction: Plant economics spectrum governs leaf nitrogen and phosphorus resorption in subtropical transitional forests.
Ma Boyu B Ge Jielin J Zhao Changming C Xu Wenting W Xu Kai K Xie Zongqiang Z
BMC plant biology 20240821 1
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Project description:BackgroundLeaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) resorption is a fundamental adaptation strategy for plant nutrient conservation. However, the relative roles that environmental factors and plant functional traits play in regulating N and P resorption remain largely unclear, and little is known about the underlying mechanism of plant functional traits affecting nutrient resorption. Here, we measured leaf N and P resorption and 13 plant functional traits of leaf, petiole, and twig for 101 representative broad-leaved tree species in our target subtropical transitional forests. We integrated these multiple functional traits into the plant economics spectrum (PES). We further explored whether and how elevation-related environmental factors and these functional traits collectively control leaf N and P resorption.ResultsWe found that deciduous and evergreen trees exhibited highly diversified PES strategies, tending to be acquisitive and conservative, respectively. The effects of PES, rather than of environmental factors, dominated leaf N and P resorption patterns along the elevational gradient. Specifically, the photosynthesis and nutrient recourse utilization axis positively affected N and P resorption for both deciduous and evergreen trees, whereas the structural and functional investment axis positively affected leaf N and P resorption for evergreen species only. Specific leaf area and green leaf nutrient concentrations were the most influential traits driving leaf N and P resorption.ConclusionsOur study simultaneously elucidated the relative contributions of environmental factors and plant functional traits to leaf N and P resorption by including more representative tree species than previous studies, expanding our understanding beyond the relatively well-studied tropical and temperate forests. We highlight that prioritizing the fundamental role of traits related to leaf resource capture and defense contributes to the monitoring and modeling of leaf nutrient resorption. Therefore, we need to integrate PES effects on leaf nutrient resorption into the current nutrient cycling model framework to better advance our general understanding of the consequences of shifting tree species composition for nutrient cycles across diverse forests.
| S-EPMC11316423 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Nutrient resorption is an important internal-strategy for plant to retain nutrients. However, the spatial patterns of nitrogen and phosphorus resorption efficiencies (NRE, PRE) in national scales are still unexplored. In this study, we first estimated the magnitudes of NRE and PRE, and explored their spatial patterns across China's forests based on the dataset from a nation-wide field campaign from 2011 to 2015. Mean NRE was estimated to be 35.64% and higher than mean PRE (43.72%). The main effects of forest type and the interactions between climatic zone and land use were significant for both NRE and PRE. In addition, NRE and PRE exhibited different patterns along climatic gradients and nutrient status. Our results can shed light on the nutrient strategies of China's forests under future environmental changes and the results could be used in global biogeochemical models.
| S-EPMC5587577 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Leaf dark respiration (Rdark ) represents an important component controlling the carbon balance in tropical forests. Here, we test how nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) affect Rdark and its relationship with photosynthesis using three widely separated tropical forests which differ in soil fertility. Rdark was measured on 431 rainforest canopy trees, from 182 species, in French Guiana, Peru and Australia. The variation in Rdark was examined in relation to leaf N and P content, leaf structure and maximum photosynthetic rates at ambient and saturating atmospheric CO2 concentration. We found that the site with the lowest fertility (French Guiana) exhibited greater rates of Rdark per unit leaf N, P and photosynthesis. The data from Australia, for which there were no phylogenetic overlaps with the samples from the South American sites, yielded the most distinct relationships of Rdark with the measured leaf traits. Our data indicate that no single universal scaling relationship accounts for variation in Rdark across this large biogeographical space. Variability between sites in the absolute rates of Rdark and the Rdark : photosynthesis ratio were driven by variations in N- and P-use efficiency, which were related to both taxonomic and environmental variability.
| S-EPMC5412872 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Leaf nutrient resorption and drought resistance are crucial for the growth and survival of plants. However, our understanding of the relationships between leaf nutrient resorption and plant drought resistance is still limited. In this study, we investigated the nitrogen and phosphorus resorption efficiencies (NRE and PRE), leaf structural traits, leaf osmotic potential at full hydration (Ψosm), xylem water potential at 50% loss of xylem-specific hydraulic conductivity (P50) and seasonal minimum water potential (Ψmin) for 18 shrub and tree species in a semiarid savanna ecosystem, in Southwest China. Our results showed that NRE and PRE exhibited trade-off against drought resistance traits (Ψosm and P50) across woody species. Moreover, this relationship was modulated by leaf structural investment. Species with low structural investment (e.g., leaf mass per area, leaf dry mass content and leaf construction cost [LCC]) tend to have high NRE and PRE, while those with high LCCs show high drought resistance, showing more negative Ψosm and P50.These results indicate that species with a lower leaf structural investment may have a greater need to recycle their nutrients, thus exhibiting higher nutrient resorption efficiencies, and vice versa. In conclusion, nutrient resorption efficiency may be a crucial adaptation strategy for coexisting plants in semiarid ecosystems, highlighting the importance of understanding the complex relationships between nutrient cycling and plant survival strategies.
| S-EPMC10849754 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The ecophysiological mechanisms underlying the pattern of bimodal elevational distribution of evergreen tree species remain incompletely understood. Here we used leaf economics spectrum (LES) theory to explain such patterns. We measured leaf economic traits and constructed an LES for the co-existing 19 evergreen and 15 deciduous species growing in evergreen broad-leaved forest at low elevation, beech-mixed forest at middle elevation and hemlock-mixed forest at high elevation in Mao'er Mountain, Guangxi, Southern China (25°50'N, 110°49'E). Leaf economic traits presented low but significant phylogenetic signal, suggesting trait similarity between closely related species. After considering the effects of phylogenetic history, deciduous species in general showed a more acquisitive leaf strategy with a higher ratio of leaf water to dry mass, higher leaf nitrogen and phosphorous contents, higher photosynthetic and respiratory rates and greater photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency. In contrast, evergreen species exhibited a more conservative leaf strategy with higher leaf mass per area, greater construction costs and longer leaf life span. With the elevation-induced decreases of temperature and soil fertility, both evergreen and deciduous species showed greater resource conservation, suggesting the increasing importance of environmental filtering to community assembly with increasing elevation. We found close inter-specific correlations between leaf economic traits, suggesting that there are strong genetic constraints limiting the independent evolution of LES traits. Phylogenetic signal increased with decreasing evolutionary rate across leaf economic traits, suggesting that genetic constraints are important for the process of trait evolution. We found a significantly positive relationship between primary axis species score (PASS) distance and phylogenetic distance across species pairs and an increasing average PASS distance between evergreen and deciduous species with increasing elevation, implying that the frequency of distantly related evergreen and deciduous pairs with wide spreading of leaf economic values increases with increasing elevation. Our findings thus suggest that elevation acts as an environmental filter to both select the locally adapted evergreen and deciduous species with sufficient phylogenetic variation and regulate their distribution along the elevational gradient based on their coordinated spreading of phylogenetic divergence and leaf economic variation.
| S-EPMC4571104 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Halophytes play a crucial role in the ecological restoration of saline and alkaline land and hold promising benefits to food security in China. Although a variety of aspects of halophytes have been extensively addressed, there is still a lack of overall understanding of the leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stoichiometric characteristics, especially at a national scale. We compiled a national dataset of 311 observations from 113 sampling sites across China to explore the changing trends and influencing factors on leaf N and P concentrations, and N:P ratio of halophytes. The results showed that leaf N concentration decreased significantly with increasing latitude (LAT), which was mainly driven by the mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP). The leaf P concentration increased remarkably with increasing longitude (LON), which was induced by the variation in soil total P (TP) content. The leaf N:P ratio increased as LAT increased and LON decreased, which was potentially regulated by the MAT, MAP, and soil TP content. The scaling exponents of the N-P relationship differed significantly among halophyte types and were 0.40, 0.87, and 1.39 for euhalophyte, pseudohalophyte, and recretohalophyte, respectively. The leaf N concentration exhibited significant differences among ecosystem types and halophyte types, whereas the leaf P concentration and N:P ratio remained relatively stable. In summary, the leaf N concentration and N-P scaling exponent might be the classification criteria for halophyte types from the perspective of plant nutrient resource allocation. Moreover, this study characterized the spatial distribution and allocation strategy of leaf N and P stoichiometry in halophytes by data integration analysis, providing the basic information for nutrient management in the processes of the future domestication and introduction of halophytes.
| S-EPMC10582939 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Most previous studies have ascribed variations in the resorption of a certain plant nutrient to its corresponding environmental availability or level in tissues, regardless of the other nutrients' status. However, given that plant growth relies on both sufficient and balanced nutrient supply, the nutrient resorption process should not only be related to the absolute nutrient status, but also be regulated by the relative limitation of the nutrient. Here, based on a global woody-plants dataset from literature, we test the hypothesis that plants resorb proportionately more nitrogen (or phosphorus) when they are nitrogen (or phosphorus) limited, or similar proportions of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) when co-limited by both nutrients (the relative resorption hypothesis). Using the N:P ratio in green foliage as an indicator of nutrient limitation, we found an inverse relationship between the difference in the proportionate resorption of N vs P and this foliar N:P ratio, consistent across species, growth-forms, and vegetation-types globally. Moreover, according to the relative resorption hypothesis, communities with higher/lower foliar N:P (more likely P/N limited) tend to produce litter with disproportionately higher/lower N:P, causing a worsening status of P/N availability; this positive feedback may somehow be counteracted by several negative-feedback mechanisms. Compared to N, P generally shows higher variability in resorption efficiency (proportion resorbed), and higher resorption sensitivity to nutrient availability, implying that the resorption of P seems more important for plant nutrient conservation and N:P stoichiometry. Our findings elucidate the nutrient limitation effects on resorption efficiency in woody plants at the global scale, and thus can improve the understanding of nutrient resorption process in plants. This study also suggests the importance of the foliar N:P ratio as a key parameter for biogeochemical modeling, and the relative resorption hypothesis used to deduce the critical (optimal) N:P ratio for a specific plant community.
| S-EPMC3871644 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has caused concern due to its effects on litter decomposition in subtropical regions where N-fixing tree species are widespread. However, the effect of N deposition on litter decomposition in N-fixing plantations remains unclear. We investigated the effects of a 2-year N deposition treatment on litter decomposition, microbial activity, and nutrient release in two subtropical forests containing Alnus cremastogyne (AC, N-fixing) and Liquidambar formosana (LF, non-N-fixing). The decomposition rate in AC was faster than in LF when there was no experimental N deposition. In AC, the initial decomposition rate was faster when additional N was applied and was strongly linked to higher cellulose-degrading enzyme activities during the early decomposition stage. However, N deposition reduced litter decomposition and inhibited lignin-degrading enzyme activities during the later decomposition stage. Nitrogen deposition enhanced carbohydrate and alcohol utilization, but suppressed amino acid and carboxylic acid uptake in the AC plantation. However, it did not significantly affect litter decomposition and microbial activity in the LF plantation. In conclusion, N deposition could inhibit litter decomposition by changing microbial enzyme and metabolic activities during the decomposition process and would increase carbon accumulation and nitrogen retention in subtropical forests with N-fixing tree species.
| S-EPMC6113256 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Leaf functional traits have attracted the attention of ecologists for several decades, but few studies have systematically assessed leaf morphological traits (termed "economic traits"), stomatal (termed "hydraulic"), and anatomical traits of entire forest communities, thus it is unclear whether their relationships are consistent among trees, shrubs, and herbs, and which anatomical traits should be assigned to economical or hydraulic traits. In this study, we collected leaf samples of 106 plant species in temperate forests and 164 plant species in subtropical forests and determined nine key functional traits. We found that functional traits differed between temperate and subtropical forests. Leaf traits also differed between different plant functional groups, irrespective of forest type; dry matter content, stomatal density, and cell tense ratio followed the order trees > shrubs > herbs, whereas specific leaf area and sponginess ratio showed the opposite pattern. The correlations of leaf traits were not consistent among trees, shrubs, and herbs, which may reflect different adaptive strategies. Principal component analysis indicated that leaf economics and hydraulic traits were uncoupled in temperate and subtropical forests, and correlations of anatomical traits and economic and hydraulic traits were weak, indicating anatomical traits should be emphasized in future studies.
| S-EPMC6456615 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Stoichiometric homeostasis is the ability of plants remaining their element composition relatively stable regardless of changes in nutrient availability, via various physiological mechanisms. Nutrient resorption is one of such key mechanisms, but whether and how nitrogen and phosphorus homeostasis and resorption in plants would change with growth-stages under variable nutrient supply was unclear. A nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizer addition experiment was conducted to evaluate the dynamics of N and P homeostasis and resorption efficiency during different growth-stages of Amaranthus mangostanus in a greenhouse. The homeostasis regulation coefficient of green-leaf P varied significantly, while that of green-leaf N maintained relatively stable across growth stages. Moreover, homeostasis regulation coefficient of N was higher at seedling stage but lower at flowering stage than that of P at corresponding stages, suggesting that the growth of A. mangostanus may switch from being more N- to P-limited from vegetative to reproductive stage. N resorption efficiency (NRE) was higher and P resorption efficiency (PRE) was lower at flowering than seed-filling stage. The nutrient dynamics displayed here suggested contrasting nutrient homeostasis and resorption responses of plants to environmental nutrient availability across growth stages. These findings can improve the understanding of nutrition maintenance mechanism of plants during their growth.
| S-EPMC5110967 | biostudies-literature