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Dominant plant species shift their nitrogen uptake patterns in response to nutrient enrichment caused by a fungal fairy in an alpine meadow

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Abstract

Niche partitioning by time, space and chemical forms has been suggested as an important mechanism to maintain species coexistence. Climate warming is assumed to increase soil nutrient availability through enhancing mineralization of soil organic matter in a variety of terrestrial ecosystems. However, few studies have yet examined how dominant plant species contribute to species coexistence when nutrient enrichment occurs in native ecosystems. We studied a single fairy ring (5 m diameter) in a Kobresia meadow in the Tibetan Plateau. This kind of rings is caused by a basidiomycete fungus Agaricus campestris, and is evidenced by dark-green vegetation boundaries. Nutrient enrichment occurs due to enhanced decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) in the fungus growth zone of these rings. We conducted a short-term 15N labelling experiment and found that dominant plant species shifted their N uptake patterns and preferred N form (NO −3 , NH +4 , and amino acid N) in response to nutrient enrichment in an N-limited alpine meadow. The legume Gueldenstaedtia diversifolia had the lowest aboveground biomass among the five plant species studied at low available N level, although it mainly utilized ammonium (the most abundant N form). The two graminoids (Elymus nutans and Stipa aliena) demonstrated similar aboveground biomass at low and high available N levels, showing a similar pattern switching from NH +4 /NO −3 uptake outside the ring to glycine uptake in the annulus zone of the ring. The biomass of the forb Gentiana straminea differed significantly at low and high available N levels, but its N uptake pattern almost remained unchanged. Species therefore differed in their response to nutrient enrichment, most species showing chemical niche shifts instead of niche conservatism. This finding has important implications with regard to understanding the mechanisms responsible for species coexistence when natural nutrient enrichment is induced by climate warming in terrestrial ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Douglas Schaefer for his English improvement. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that helped us to greatly improve the manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30870424) and National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2010CB833501).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xingliang Xu & Hua Ouyang

  2. Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 23 Xinning Street, Xining, 810008, China

    Guangmin Cao

  3. Department of Chemical Ecology and Ecosystem Research, Vienna Ecology Centre, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Wien, Austria

    Andreas Richter & Wolfgang Wanek

  4. Department of Agroecosystem Research, University of Bayreuth, 95440, Bayreuth, Germany

    Yakov Kuzyakov

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  1. Xingliang Xu
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  2. Hua Ouyang
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  3. Guangmin Cao
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  4. Andreas Richter
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  5. Wolfgang Wanek
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Correspondence to Xingliang Xu.

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Responsible Editor: Herbert J. Kronzucker.

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Xu, X., Ouyang, H., Cao, G. et al. Dominant plant species shift their nitrogen uptake patterns in response to nutrient enrichment caused by a fungal fairy in an alpine meadow. Plant Soil 341, 495–504 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0662-1

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