Abstract
The availability of phosphorus in many UK forest soils limits growth of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.). Efficient cycling of P within such systems is therefore necessary for sustained tree growth. Internal cycling of P is an important component of the overall P cycle in forests and the current work aims to quantify the impact of P nutrition on internal cycling and seasonal growth of Sitka spruce.
Two-year old seedlings of Sitka spruce were grown in sand culture in the glasshouse for one year. Two treatments were imposed in which trees received either a complete nutrient solution from which P was excluded (-P) or one in which P was applied as labelled 32P (+P). Internal cycling of P was measured directly in plants which had received no P and by difference in those which received 32P.
The contrasting P treatments produced an eight-fold difference in P content and a three-fold difference in tree growth between May and October. Root:shoot ratios increased during the growing season from 0.29 to 0.38 and from 0.29 to 0.52 in +P and-P treatments, respectively. In both treatments P was translocated from old shoots to support new shoot growth. P supply did not affect the amount of P remobilised but there was evidence that the rate of remobilisation may have been affected. The partition of remobilised P was affected by current P supply and differed from the partition of current P uptake.
Results are compared to those from studies of growth and internal cycling of nitrogen in Sitka spruce.
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Proe, M.F., Millard, P. Effect of P supply upon seasonal growth and internal cycling of P in Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis(Bong.)Carr.) seedlings. Plant Soil 168, 313–317 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00029343
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00029343