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Are patterns in nutrient limitation belowground consistent with those aboveground: results from a 4 million year chronosequence

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Abstract

Accurately predicting the effects of global change on net carbon (C) exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere requires a more complete understanding of how nutrient availability regulates both plant growth and heterotrophic soil respiration. Models of soil development suggest that the nature of nutrient limitation changes over the course of ecosystem development, transitioning from nitrogen (N) limitation in ‘young’ sites to phosphorus (P) limitation in ‘old’ sites. However, previous research has focused primarily on plant responses to added nutrients, and the applicability of nutrient limitation-soil development models to belowground processes has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we assessed the effects of nutrients on soil C cycling in three different forests that occupy a 4 million year substrate age chronosequence where tree growth is N limited at the youngest site, co-limited by N and P at the intermediate-aged site, and P limited at the oldest site. Our goal was to use short-term laboratory soil C manipulations (using 14C-labeled substrates) and longer-term intact soil core incubations to compare belowground responses to fertilization with aboveground patterns. When nutrients were applied with labile C (sucrose), patterns of microbial nutrient limitation were similar to plant patterns: microbial activity was limited more by N than by P in the young site, and P was more limiting than N in the old site. However, in the absence of C additions, increased respiration of native soil organic matter only occurred with simultaneous additions of N and P. Taken together, these data suggest that altered nutrient inputs into ecosystems could have dissimilar effects on C cycling above- and belowground, that nutrients may differentially affect of the fate of different soil C pools, and that future changes to the net C balance of terrestrial ecosystems will be partially regulated by soil nutrient status.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Heraldo Farrington for his advice and assistance in the field, to Jonathan Leff for excellent help with laboratory analyses, and to Tim Crews, Margaret Torn, David Lipson, and Alan Townsend for their willingness to share unpublished data and offer advice. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved a previous draft of this manuscript. We are grateful to Walt Hill, Stephen Lodmell, and Jean-Marc Lanchy for access to and help with their liquid scintillation counter. We thank the Division of Forestry and Wildlife of the State of Hawai’i and Koke’e State Park for their logistical assistance and for allowing us access to the sites. Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. This research was funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants to C.C. and P.V.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, 2290 S.W. Resource Blvd., Moab, UT, 84532, USA

    Sasha C. Reed

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Peter M. Vitousek

  3. Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, 59812, USA

    Cory C. Cleveland

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  1. Sasha C. Reed
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Correspondence to Sasha C. Reed.

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Reed, S.C., Vitousek, P.M. & Cleveland, C.C. Are patterns in nutrient limitation belowground consistent with those aboveground: results from a 4 million year chronosequence. Biogeochemistry 106, 323–336 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-010-9522-6

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