Sd. Koutroubas et al., Nutrient use efficiency as a factor determining the structure of herbaceous plant communities in low-nutrient environments, J AGRON CR, 184(4), 2000, pp. 261-266
Citations number
13
Categorie Soggetti
Agriculture/Agronomy
Journal title
JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY AND CROP SCIENCE-ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ACKER UND PFLANZENBAU
We tested the hypothesis that, in competition for nutrients, the plant spec
ies using more efficiently the limiting nutrient will tend to dominate in p
lant communities. Two experiments were conducted. In the first, plant commu
nities consisting of perennial herbaceous species were grown in large boxes
filled with soil enriched with all necessary nutrients, except for nitroge
n (N) in half of the boxes and phosphorus (P) in the other half. It was exp
ected that N or P, respectively, would become progressively limiting. In th
e second experiment, five perennial species, in monocultures and in mixture
s of the five species, were grown in nutrient solutions of the combination
of 3 levels of potassium (4, 16 and 64 mu g ml(-1)) x 2 levels of phosphoru
s (1 and 4 mu g ml(-1)) with all the other necessary nutrients at adequate
concentrations for plant growth. In the first experiment, changes of the pr
oportions of species biomass duration to community biomass duration between
the second and the third years of the experiments were negatively related
to species P shoot concentrations, but they were not related to species N s
hoot concentrations, probably because N did not become limiting. The second
experiment showed that the species use efficiency of a particular nutrient
(measured as the quantity of dry matter produced per g nutrient) was highe
st when the availability of this nutrient was lowest; the species with the
highest use efficiency of a particular nutrient tended to have the highest
relative abundance when this nutrient was limiting. The results of both exp
eriments suggest that nutrient competition is important in low-nutrient env
ironments and the species that use more efficiently the limiting nutrients
have a competitive advantage and tend to dominate in the plant community.