Abstract
Background and aims
Soil phosphorus (P) can often regulate plant productivity. However, the medium- to long-term effects of reforestation on P cycle within the continuum of plant, litter, and soil (including deep soil layers), and the subsequent regulation of soil P storage and its fractions, remain unclear.
Methods
We determined soil (0–100 cm) P fractions, acid phosphatase, stoichiometric ratios, root and leaf N/P ratios, leaf P resorption efficiency (PRE), and leaf-litter P concentration of 32-, 45-, and 60-year-old Pinus massoniana reforestation in southwest China.
Results
The storage of soil labile, moderately labile, and occluded P decreased with the increase of stand age. The concentration of NaHCO3-Pi, NaHCO3-Po, and total labile P in top-soil layers decreased with the increase of stand age. The concentration of NaOH-Po and total moderately labile P in the entire soil profile declined over time. The concentration of C.HCl-Pi and total occluded P in the 0–100 cm soil layer were lower in the 60-year-old stand than in the 32-year-old stand. The PRE, leaf N/P ratio, top-soil C/P ratio and acid phosphatase activity increased, and the leaf-litter P concentration decreased with the increase of stand age.
Conclusions
P. massoniana trees secreted more acid phosphatase and increased PRE to compensate for the decrease in soil P availability with stand development, which in turn decreased leaf-litter P concentration and thus resulted in a depletion of soil P. Overall, our results highlighted that P limitation of P. massoniana reforestation increased with stand development.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Guizhou Provincial Basic Research Program (ZK[2022]YIBAN101; ZK[2023]YIBAN110), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32360259), and Natural Science Project of Guizhou University [202131]. Josep Peñuelas and Jordi Sardans are financially supported by the Fundación Ramon Areces grant CIVP20A6621, the Spanish Government grants PID2020115770RB-I, TED2021-132627B-I00 and PID2022-140808NB-I00 funded by MCIN, AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR, and the Catalan Government Grant SGR2021-1333. We thank Xiaojin Wang, Wenting Tang, Xianyan Wang, Li Zhang, Maiwei Yang for their contributions to the laboratory.
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Liehua Tie: Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Josep Peñuelas: Conceptualization, Results discussion, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Congde Huang: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Jordi Sardans: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Arun K. Bose: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Shengnan Ouyang: Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Yixian Kong: Methodology, Resources. Yan Guo: Methodology, Resources. Yujie Wu: Methodology, Resources. Wei Cheng: Methodology, Resources. Guijie Ding: Methodology, Writing - review & editing.
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Tie, L., Peñuelas, J., Huang, C. et al. Phosphorus limitation of Pinus massoniana reforestation increases with stand development: evidence from plant, leaf litter, and soil. Plant Soil (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06661-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06661-3