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Nitrogen addition has a stronger effect on stoichiometries of non-structural carbohydrates, nitrogen and phosphorus in Bothriochloa ischaemum than elevated CO2

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Abstract

The nutrient concentrations and carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus stoichiometries of plants have been greatly altered by elevated CO2 concentrations and nitrogen (N) deposition. Studies of these changes, however, are mostly limited to tropical and subtropical forests. In this study, a C4 herbaceous grass (Bothriochloa ischaemum) was grown in a pot experiment at two CO2 concentrations (400 and 800 μmol mol−1) and three levels of N fertilization (0, 2.5 and 5 g N m−2 y−1) in a full factorial design. Plant biomass and the concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs), N and phosphorus (P) in the shoots and roots were determined. The elevated CO2 concentration and N addition significantly increased total biomass, starch and NSC concentrations and root:shoot, starch:N, NSC:N, starch:P and NSC:P ratios in whole plants and roots. N addition alone decreased the soluble sugar (SS) concentration in whole plants and increased N concentration and decreased P concentration in whole plants and roots and thus decreased the SS:N ratio and increased the SS:P and N:P ratios. Our results suggested that SS, N and P concentrations and their stoichiometries responded more strongly to N addition than elevated CO2 concentration. Plant growth in this region suffers more from P than N limitation, and N addition would exacerbate the P limitation on plant growth.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Western Young Scholars of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XAB2015A05), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41371510, 41371508, 41471438, and 41330858).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China

    Lie Xiao, Guobin Liu & Sha Xue

  2. State Key Laboratory Base of Eco-hydraulic Engineering in Arid Area, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, China

    Lie Xiao & Peng Li

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  1. Lie Xiao
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Correspondence to Sha Xue.

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Xiao, L., Liu, G., Li, P. et al. Nitrogen addition has a stronger effect on stoichiometries of non-structural carbohydrates, nitrogen and phosphorus in Bothriochloa ischaemum than elevated CO2 . Plant Growth Regul 83, 325–334 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-017-0298-8

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