Abstract
Resorption of nutrients from senescing organs is an important conservation mechanism that is usually influenced by the supply of soil nutrients and plant growth requirements. Therefore, it is likely that increases in nitrogen (N), precipitation, and litter could lead to changes in nutrient resorption because of changes in nutrients in the soil and accelerated plant growth in response to the alleviation of water limitations in arid and semiarid environments. In the current study, we investigated the effects of water, N, and litter addition on the nutrient resorption efficiency and proficiency of N and phosphorus (P) in leaves and stems of Leymus chinensis in Inner Mongolia, China. Our results showed that N addition significantly decreased the N resorption efficiency in leaves under water addition, and increased P resorption efficiency under ambient precipitation conditions. There was no apparent influence of either litter or water addition on N and P resorption efficiencies. However, N and litter addition significantly altered N and P resorption proficiencies, and these effects were modulated by water availability. Furthermore, changes in resorption proficiencies were mainly associated with alterations in the nutritional status of green organs in response to water, N and litter addition, except for leaf P. Our findings highlight the importance of increased precipitation in modulating the nutrient resorption proficiency of plants under potentially increased nutrient availability in semiarid grasslands. Therefore, global changes in precipitation and N, and corresponding litter changes could result in complex effects on plant nutrient economies and, in turn, could influence the return of nutrients to the soil.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System (CARS-35) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31472137). We thank Professor Taogetao Baoyin and Inner Mongolia University for providing the experimental facilities. We are thankful for the valuable comments made by two anonymous reviewers who helped improve the original version of this paper.
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Communicated by Martin Nunez.
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Shen, Y., Yang, X., Sun, X. et al. Increased precipitation modulates the influence of nitrogen and litter inputs on the nutrient resorption proficiency rather than efficiency of Leymus chinensis. Plant Ecol 219, 217–230 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-017-0790-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-017-0790-2