Abstract
The resource budget model for mast seeding hypothesizes that soil nutrients proximately influence reproduction. Plants in high soil nutrient (particularly N) areas are predicted to have lower reproductive variability over time and higher mean reproduction. While often examined theoretically, there are relatively few empirical tests of this hypothesis. We quantified cone production of 110 individual white spruce (Picea glauca) trees over seven years and quantified plant-available soil macronutrients (N, Ca, K, Mg, P, S) in natural forest conditions across three years with different cone crop conditions. Each of these plant-available soil nutrients were correlated across years (rs = 0.55–0.89; all > 0.81 for total-N); spatially, total-N availability varied 366-fold across trees. Plant-available soil nutrients did not influence variability or mean annual reproduction, contrary to nutrient perturbation experiments. We examined within-year nutrient and cone-production relationships, and observed significant positive relationships between reproduction and plant-available soil nutrients only in a low-reproduction year preceding a mast event. Both during a mast event and the following year, when overall cone production was very high or very low, there were no relationships. Both external drivers (e.g., weather) and internal resource budgets likely influence soil nutrient-reproduction relationships. These results suggest that plant-available soil nutrients may not be a large factor influencing mast-seeding patterns among individuals in this species.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all who contributed to data collection including A. Grecco, M. Lordon, A. Sajwani, C. Xu, and C. Hernsdorf. This work was supported by NSF grant DEB-1745496 to JML, the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation, Western Ag Innovations, University Research Council Collaborative Grant from DePaul University, College of Science & Health Summer Faculty Research Grant, and Undergraduate Summer Research and Undergraduate Research Assistant Programs.
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ACL, BAL, and JML contributed to experimental design and writing the manuscript. ACL and JML performed fieldwork and BAL conducted laboratory work on soil characteristics and foliar nutrients. ACL, BAL, and JML contributed to statistical approaches and ACL conducted the statistical analysis.
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Communicated by Katherine L Gross.
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Leeper, A.C., Lawrence, B.A. & LaMontagne, J.M. Plant-available soil nutrients have a limited influence on cone production patterns of individual white spruce trees. Oecologia 194, 101–111 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04759-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04759-w