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Stoichiometric homeostasis of vascular plants in the Inner Mongolia grassland

  • Physiological ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Stoichiometric homeostasis, the degree to which an organism maintains its C:N:P ratios around a given species- or stage-specific value despite variation in the relative availabilities of elements in its resource supplies, is a key parameter in ecological stoichiometry. However, its regulation and role in affecting organismal and ecosystem processes is still poorly understood in vascular plants. We performed a sand culture experiment and a field nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition experiment to evaluate the strength of N, P and N:P homeostasis in higher plants in the Inner Mongolia grassland. Our results showed that homeostatic regulation coefficients (H) of vascular plants ranged from 1.93 to 14.5. H varied according to plant species, aboveground and belowground compartments, plant developmental stage, and overall plant nutrient content and N:P ratio. H for belowground and for foliage were inversely related, while H increased with plant developmental stage. H for N (H N) was consistently greater than H for P (H P) while H for N:P (H N:P) was consistently greater than H N and H P. Furthermore, species with greater N and P contents and lower N:P were less homeostatic, suggesting that more homeostatic plants are more conservative nutrient users. The results demonstrate that H of plants encompasses a considerable range but is stronger than that of algae and fungi and weaker than that of animals. This is the first comprehensive evaluation of factors influencing stoichiometric homeostasis in vascular plants.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Research Station (IMGERS) for providing the experimental sites and elemental analysis. This work was supported by the Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 30830026), the Innovative Research Group Project of NSFC (30821062), and the State Key Basic Research Development Program (2007CB106801). J. Elser acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0618193). We would like to thank R.W. Sterner, H. Heilmeier and two anonymous reviewers for their comments that greatly improved earlier versions of this manuscript. The main participants for the field experiment included Lishi Zhou, Fumei Lv, Hao Yang, Yanshu Liu, Deliang Kong, Xiaotao Lv, Qiang Li, Jianjun Chen, and Fuli Zhang; they are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Qiang Yu, Nianpeng He, Honghui Wu, Quansheng Chen, Guangming Zhang & Xingguo Han

  2. Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Qiang Yu, Honghui Wu & Xingguo Han

  3. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    James J. Elser

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  1. Qiang Yu
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  2. James J. Elser
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  3. Nianpeng He
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  4. Honghui Wu
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  5. Quansheng Chen
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  6. Guangming Zhang
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  7. Xingguo Han
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Correspondence to Xingguo Han.

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Communicated by Hermann Heilmeier.

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Yu, Q., Elser, J.J., He, N. et al. Stoichiometric homeostasis of vascular plants in the Inner Mongolia grassland. Oecologia 166, 1–10 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1902-z

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