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Nitrogen deposition promotes phosphorus uptake of plants in a semi-arid temperate grassland

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A Commentary to this article was published on 30 September 2016

Abstract

Background and aims

Nitrogen (N) deposition greatly influences ecosystem processes through the alteration of plant nutrition; however, there is limited understanding about the effects of phosphorus (P) inputs, especially within the backdrop of N deposition.

Methods

Here we investigated the plant stoichiometric responses to P addition under both ambient conditions and with N addition in a temperate grassland in Inner Mongolia over a two-year period.

Results

The effects of P addition on foliar nutrition and stoichiometric ratios were highly dependent on the presence of N supply, in that P addition showed no significant impacts on foliar N or P concentrations (or pools in community biomass) or N:P under ambient N conditions, but enhanced foliar N in dominant species and foliar P in almost all species (and pools in community biomass) with N addition. These results may be explained by P addition significantly changing the soil properties (soil pH and available P) when applied in combination with N additions. Moreover, there was no biomass response to nutrient additions.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that N deposition may enhance the absorption of additional P by plants in semi-arid grasslands, and that P limitation with increased N deposition might be less important for limiting plant growth than previously anticipated.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully appreciate the Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Research Station (IMGERS) for providing the experimental sites and elemental analysis. This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31270476, 41320104002, 41203052), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB15010403).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Min Long, Hong-Hui Wu, Xiao-Tao Lü, Hai-Yang Zhang, Xing-Guo Han & Qiang Yu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Min Long

  3. National Hulunber Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station / Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Hong-Hui Wu & Qiang Yu

  4. Department of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Melinda D. Smith

  5. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Kimberly J. La Pierre

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  1. Min Long
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  2. Hong-Hui Wu
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Correspondence to Qiang Yu.

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Long, M., Wu, HH., Smith, M.D. et al. Nitrogen deposition promotes phosphorus uptake of plants in a semi-arid temperate grassland. Plant Soil 408, 475–484 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3022-y

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