Abstract
The processes of internal cycling of N in trees are reviewed. Deciduous trees remobilise N from roots, trunks and twigs for spring growth of leaves, and withdraw leaf N during senescence. Evergreen trees have an additional retranslocation of N from the previous year’s foliage to supply apical growing points during periods of flushing. The impact of nutrient supply on internal cycling has been studied at the ecosystem level, where N budget studies have concentrated on leaf senescence, demonstrating that enhanced soil fertility has either no effect or decreases the proportion of leaf N withdrawn. Remobilisation of N in the spring has seldom been quantified accurately under field conditions. Instead the use of 15N applied to young trees growing in sand culture has demonstrated that: (1) N remobilisation in the spring is dependent upon the amount of N in store and is unaffected by the current N supply; (2) internal cycling provides N for leaf growth in the spring before rapid root uptake of N occurs and (3) uptake of N in the autumn contributes directly to storage, while withdrawal of N from senescing leaves may provide a smaller proportion of the N subsequently recycled. These results are reviewed and discussed in relation to the internal cycling of N in both evergreen and deciduous trees.
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Millard, P. (1993). A review of internal cycling of nitrogen within trees in relation to soil fertility. In: Fragoso, M.A.C., Van Beusichem, M.L., Houwers, A. (eds) Optimization of Plant Nutrition. Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences, vol 53. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2496-8_97
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2496-8_97
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