The relationship between relative growth rate and whole-plant C:N:P stoichiometry in plant seedlings grown under nutrient-enriched conditions |
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Authors: | Youhong Peng Karl J. Niklas Shucun Sun |
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Affiliation: | 1. ECORES Lab, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 9 Section 4 Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China;2. Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA;3. Department of Biology, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China |
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Abstract: | Aims Recent theories indicate that N is more in demand for plant growth than P; therefore, N concentration and N : C and N : P ratios are predicted to be positively correlated with relative growth rate (RGR) in plants under nutrient-enriched conditions. This prediction was tested in this study.Methods We examined the whole-plant concentrations of C, N and P and RGR, as well as the relationship between RGR and the concentrations and the ratios of N : C, P : C and N : P, for different harvest stages (the days after seed germination) of the seedlings of seven shrub species and four herbaceous species grown in N and P non-limiting conditions. The relationships among plant size, nutrient concentrations and ratios were subsequently determined.Important findings RGR was positively correlated with N concentration and the ratios of N : P and N : C when the data were pooled for all species and for each shrub species, but not for individual herbaceous species. However, the relationship between RGR and P concentration and P : C was not significantly correlated for either shrubs or herbs. The variation of N among harvest stages and species was much greater than that of P, and the variation in N : P ratio was determined primarily by changes in N concentration. The shrub species differed from the herbaceous species in their N and P concentrations, nutrient ratios and in intraspecific relationships between RGR and nutrient ratios. These differences possibly reflect differences in the capacity for P storage and biomass allocation patterns. In general, our data support recent theoretical predictions regarding the relationship between RGR and C : N : P stoichiometry, but they also show that species with different life forms differ in the relationships among RGR and C : N : P stoichimetries. |
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Keywords: | C:N:P stoichiometry RGR growth rate hypothesis life forms seedlings screening experiment |
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