Community ionomics reveals a diversity of mineral nutrition in a species-rich shrubland on infertile soil

Questions

High species richness is observed in certain shrublands on infertile substrates. Mineral nutrients are likely to be the primary limiting resources in these ecosystems, and below-ground plant interactions may be crucial to understanding their diversity. Using ionomics, we investigated whether there were nutritional variations between plant species that coexist in a shrubland located in an edaphically extreme environment.

Location

New Caledonia.

Methods

We set up a 20 m × 20 m plot in a diverse shrubland (“maquis”) on ultramafic (infertile) substrate, in which we sampled all 475 plants taller than 1 m and characterized their ionome (22 elements).

Results

In our study, 37 species were identified in the plot, representing all major forms of mycorrhizal symbioses, as well as nitrogen-fixing plants, cluster rooted and parasitic plants. Notably, both nickel hyperaccumulating and manganese hyperaccumulating species were present. Hypervolume approaches were used to assess ionome overlap among the nine most abundant species, with the results revealing limited overlap. Moreover, it was observed that the rarest species in the plot also had the most functionally distinct features.

Conclusions

Different nutritional strategies were present in the plot, as demonstrated by the variety of root symbioses and leaf ionomes. Our findings indicate coexistence of multiple species within this infertile shrubland may be achieved by species partitioning into different highly specialized biogeochemical niches.