Interspecific differences in nitrogen form acquisition strategies contribute to species dominance

Abstract

Plant's ability to use prevalent or less prevalent soil nitrogen (N) forms may affect their dominance within vegetation types, and these partitioning-driven changes in dominance may facilitate species co-existence. However, the mechanisms underlying these processes remain unclear, particularly given the strong influence of altitude on soil N forms, which in turn affect plant N acquisition strategy. In this study, we first determined the effects of preference and plasticity in N form uptake on partitioning of soil N forms and species dominance, and then assessed the relative importance of these two N form use strategies for 19 dominant and non-dominant species in three vegetation types along an altitudinal gradient on Changbai Mountain, northeast China. To achieve this, we measured dominance, the contents of different N forms in rhizosphere soils, their proportional contributions to leaf N, and N form uptake preference and plasticity for these 19 species. Our results show significant interspecific differences in the proportional contributions of different soil N forms to leaf N within all three vegetation types, providing a novel mechanism underlying niche differentiation among plants. Species dominance was positively associated with the proportional contributions of soil dissolved organic N (the most prevalent N form) and the main inorganic N form to leaf N, while negatively with that of the subordinate inorganic N. These associations were not altered by the altitude-driven changes in the absolute and proportional contents of different soil N forms, suggesting a potentially widespread phenomenon. Both preference and plasticity in N form uptake contributed to the proportional contributions of different N forms to leaf N, and therefore to species dominance and co-existence within vegetation types. Furthermore, N form preference was more critical for non-dominant relative to dominant species and at high relative to low altitude, while N form uptake plasticity was more important for dominant species and at low altitude. Our study provides robust evidence for the interspecific niche differentiation in N form uptake, contributing to species dominance and co-existence within vegetation types, and reveals the mechanisms (plasticity and preference) underlying the association between species dominance and the uptakes of different N forms.