Increasing phosphorus limitation with tree age in tropical forests

IF 3.9 2区农林科学 Q1 AGRONOMY

Plant and Soil Pub Date : 2025-05-07 DOI:10.1007/s11104-025-07521-4

Nan Hu, Qinggong Mao, Liang Zheng, Xibin Sun, Yixue Hong, Yi Yang, Jiarong Chen, Hao Chen

{"title":"Increasing phosphorus limitation with tree age in tropical forests","authors":"Nan Hu, Qinggong Mao, Liang Zheng, Xibin Sun, Yixue Hong, Yi Yang, Jiarong Chen, Hao Chen","doi":"10.1007/s11104-025-07521-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Aims</h3><p>Phosphorus (P) availability commonly limits the growth of tropical plants, yet how this limitation changes with tree age remains uncertain.</p><h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Methods</h3><p>Here we investigated the effect of tree age on P limitation in a tropical forest by examining three functional plant groups: fast-growing, slow-growing, and nitrogen (N)-fixing tree species. We measured leaf N and P resorption efficiency (NRE and PRE), and used the PRE:NRE ratio as an indicator of plant P limitation.</p><h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Results</h3><p>Our results revealed a significant increase in both PRE and PRE:NRE with tree age across all functional plant groups, indicating a widespread intensification of P limitation as plants mature. Furthermore, this increase in P limitation was more pronounced in slow-growing and N-fixing species compared to fast-growing species.</p><h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Conclusions</h3><p>These findings underscore the crucial role of tree age in influencing P limitation in tropical forests, a factor that should be incorporated into terrestrial biogeochemical models, which have traditionally overlooked this effect.</p>","PeriodicalId":20223,"journal":{"name":"Plant and Soil","volume":"116 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Plant and Soil","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-025-07521-4","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AGRONOMY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aims

Phosphorus (P) availability commonly limits the growth of tropical plants, yet how this limitation changes with tree age remains uncertain.

Methods

Here we investigated the effect of tree age on P limitation in a tropical forest by examining three functional plant groups: fast-growing, slow-growing, and nitrogen (N)-fixing tree species. We measured leaf N and P resorption efficiency (NRE and PRE), and used the PRE:NRE ratio as an indicator of plant P limitation.

Results

Our results revealed a significant increase in both PRE and PRE:NRE with tree age across all functional plant groups, indicating a widespread intensification of P limitation as plants mature. Furthermore, this increase in P limitation was more pronounced in slow-growing and N-fixing species compared to fast-growing species.

Conclusions

These findings underscore the crucial role of tree age in influencing P limitation in tropical forests, a factor that should be incorporated into terrestrial biogeochemical models, which have traditionally overlooked this effect.

查看原文本刊更多论文

热带森林磷限制随树龄增加

磷(P)的有效性通常限制了热带植物的生长，但这种限制如何随树龄变化仍然不确定。方法以速生、慢生和固氮树种为研究对象，研究了树龄对热带森林磷限制的影响。测定了叶片氮磷吸收效率（NRE和PRE），并将PRE:NRE比值作为植物磷限制的指标。结果显示，在所有功能植物类群中，PRE和PRE:NRE均随树龄显著增加，表明随着植物成熟，磷限制普遍增强。此外，与快速生长的物种相比，缓慢生长和固定n的物种的P限制增加更为明显。这些发现强调了树木年龄在影响热带森林磷限制中的关键作用，这一因素应该纳入陆地生物地球化学模型，传统上忽视了这一影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Plant and Soil 农林科学-农艺学

CiteScore

8.20

自引率

8.20%

发文量

543

审稿时长

2.5 months

期刊介绍： Plant and Soil publishes original papers and review articles exploring the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and that enhance our mechanistic understanding of plant-soil interactions. We focus on the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and seek those manuscripts with a strong mechanistic component which develop and test hypotheses aimed at understanding underlying mechanisms of plant-soil interactions. Manuscripts can include both fundamental and applied aspects of mineral nutrition, plant water relations, symbiotic and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions, root anatomy and morphology, soil biology, ecology, agrochemistry and agrophysics, as long as they are hypothesis-driven and enhance our mechanistic understanding. Articles including a major molecular or modelling component also fall within the scope of the journal. All contributions appear in the English language, with consistent spelling, using either American or British English.