Do foliar, litter, and root nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations reflect nutrient limitation in a lowland tropical wet forest?

ABSTRACT: Understanding nutrient limitation of net primary productivity (NPP) is critical to predict how plant communities will respond to environmental change. Foliar nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations ([N] and [P]) and their ratio, have been used widely as indicators of plant nutritional status and have been linked directly to nutrient limitation of NPP. In tropical systems, however, a high number of confounding factors can limit the ability to predict nutrient limitation--as defined mechanistically by NPP responses to fertilization--based on the stoichiometric signal of the plant community. We used a long-term full factorial N and P fertilization experiment in a lowland tropical wet forest in Costa Rica to explore how tissue (foliar, litter and root) [N] and [P] changed

SUBMITTER: Alvarez-Clare S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4406610 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature