Summary
Six speices of shrubs and one large herb with contrasting life history patterns were used as bioassays of nutrient availability in a Costa Rican lowland rain forest soil. Growth responses of the herb (Phytolacca rivinoides, Phytolaccaceae) confirmed soil measurements indicating high availability of N and potentially limiting levels of P, K, Mg and Ca. Growth responses of the shrub species (Miconia spp., Melastomataceae and Piper spp., Piperaceae) to a complete nutrient fertilizer were generally less than that of Phytolacca. Lack of a strong shrub response to +P fertilization is probably due to mycorrhizal associations and slower growth rates of woody species. In general, increased growth did not occur at the expense of phenolic production in the leaves. The results emphasize that assessment of specific nutrient limitations to plant growth vary depending on species selected for the bioassay, even among species from the same community.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baldwin IT, Schultz JC (1983) Rapid changes in tree leaf chemistry induced by damage: evidence for communication between plants. Science 221: 277–279
Bate Smith EC (1977) Astringent tannins of Acer species. Phytochemistry 16: 1421–1426
Bourgeois WM, Cole DW, Riekerk H, Gessel SP (1972) Geology and soils of comparative ecosystem study areas, Costa Rica. Inst For Prod, Coll For Res, Univ Washington, Trop For Ser, Contr No 11, p 37
Broadhurst RB, Jones WT (1978) Analysis of condensed tannins using acidified vanillin. J Sci Food Agric 29: 788–794
Bryant JP, Chapin III FS, Klein DR (1983) Carbon/nutrient balance of boreal plants in relation to vertebrate herbivory. Oikos 40: 357–368
Butler LG, Price ML, Brotherton JE (1982) Vanillin assay for proanthocyanidins (condensed tannins): modification of the solvent for estimation of the degree of polymerization. J Agric Food Chem 30: 1087–1089
Chapin III FS (1980) The mineral nutrition of wild plants. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 11: 233–260
Chapin III FS, Vitousek PM, Van Cleve K (1986) The nature of nutrient limitation in plant communities. Am Nat 127: 48–58
Chazdon R, Fetcher N (1984) Photosynthetic light environments in a lowland tropical rain forest in Costa Rica. J Ecol 72: 553–564
Coley PD, Bryant JP, Chapin III FS (1985) Resource availability and antiherbivore defense. Science 230: 895–899
Denslow JS (1978) Secondary succession in a Colombian rainforest: strategies of species response across a disturbance gradient. Ph D Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin
Fleming T (1983) Piper (Candela, Candelillos, Piper) In: Janzen DH (ed) Costa Rican Natural History, Univ Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 303–304
Gerdemann JW (1968) Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae and plant growth. Ann Rev Phytopathology 6: 397–418
Grime JP (1977) Evidence for the existence of three primary strategies in plants and its relevance to ecological and evolutionary theory. Am Nat 111: 1169–1194
Haukioja E, Neuvonen S (1985) Induced long-term resistance of birch foliage against defoliators: defensive or incidental? Ecology 66: 1303–1308
Holdridge LR, Gremke WC, Hatheway WH, Liang T, Tosi Jr J (1971) Forest environments in tropical life zones: A pilot study. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp 747
Hunt R (1978) Plant growth analysis. Arnold, London
Janos DP (1980) Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae affect lowland tropical rainforest plant growth. Ecology 61: 151–162
Martin JS, Martin MM (1982) Tannin assays in ecological studies: lack of correlation between phenolics, proanthocyanidins and protein-precipitating constituents in mature foliage of six oak species. Oecologia (Berlin) 54: 205–211
Mooney HA, Gulmon SL (1982) Constraints on leaf structure and function in reference to herbivory. Bioscience 32: 198–206
Peace WJH, Grubb PJ (1982) Interaction of light and mineral nutrient supply in the growth of Impatiens parviflora. New Phytol 90: 127–150
Robertson GP (1982) Nitrification in forested ecosystems. Phil Trans Royal Soc London B 296: 445–457
Robertson GP (1984) Nitrification and nitrogen mineralization in a lowland rainforest succession in Costa Rica, Central America. Oecologia (Berlin) 61: 99–104
Robichaux RH, Pearcy RW (1984) Evolution of C3 and C4 plants along an environmental moisture gradient: patterns of photosynthetic differentiation in Hawaiian Scaevola and Euphorbia species. Am J Bot 71: 121–129
Schultz JC, Baldwin IT (1982) Oak leaf quality declines in response to defoliation by gypsy moth larvae. Science 217: 149–151
Schultz JC, Baldwin IT, Nothnagle PJ (1981) Hemaglobin as a binding substrate in the quantitative analysis of plant tannins. J Agric Food Chem 29: 823–826
Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1981) Biometry, 2nd ed. Freeman, San Francisco, CA
Swain T, Hillis WE (1959) The phenolic constituents of Prunus domestica. I. The quantitative analysis of phenolic constituents. J Sci Food Agric 10: 63–68
Uehara G, Gillman G (1981) The mineralogy, chemistry, and physics of tropical soils with variable charge clays. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado
Vitousek PM (1984) Litterfall, nutrient cycling, and nutrient limitation in tropical forests. Ecology 65: 285–298
Vitousek PM, Denslow JS (1986) Nitrogen and phosphorus availability in treefall gaps of a lowland tropical forest. J Ecol 74: 1167–1178
Vitousek PM, Denslow JS (1987) Differences in extractable phosphorus among soils of the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. Biotropica 19: 167–170
Vitousek PM, Matson PA (1985) Disturvance, nitrogen availability, and nitrogen losses in an intensively managed loblolly pine plantation. Ecology 66: 1360–1376
Vitousek PM, Sanford Jr RL (1986) Nutrient cycling in moist tropical forest. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 17: 137–167
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Denslow, J.S., Vitousek, P.M. & Schultz, J.C. Bioassays of nutrient limitation in a tropical rain forest soil. Oecologia 74, 370–376 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00378932
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00378932