Soil types select for plants with matching nutrient‐acquisition and ‐use traits in hyperdiverse and severely nutrient‐impoverished campos rupestres and cerrado in Central Brazil

Understanding the mechanisms that underlie the generation of beta‐diversity remains a challenge in ecology. Underground plant adaptations to environmental gradients have received relatively little attention. We studied plant nutrient‐acquisition strategies and nutrient‐use efficiency at three stages...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of ecology 2019-05, Vol.107 (3), p.1302-1316
Main Authors: Abrahão, Anna, Costa, Patricia de Britto, Lambers, Hans, Andrade, Sara Adrián L., Sawaya, Alexandra Christine Helena Frankland, Ryan, Megan H., Oliveira, Rafael Silva, Dalling, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Arbuscular mycorrhizas
Availability
Biodiversity
carboxylates
Efficiency
Environmental gradient
Fungi
Leaves
Mineral nutrients
mycorrhizas
Nitrogen
Nutrient availability
Nutrient concentrations
nutrient remobilization
nutrient stoichiometry
Nutrients
OCBILs
Phosphorus
Photosynthesis
Plant diversity
Productivity
Ratios
rhizosheath
rupestrian grasslands
sand‐binding roots
Senescence
Soil
Soil characteristics
Soil fertility
Soil formation
Soil properties
Soil texture
Soil types
Soils
Species
Species diversity
Symbiosis
Texture
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Summary:Understanding the mechanisms that underlie the generation of beta‐diversity remains a challenge in ecology. Underground plant adaptations to environmental gradients have received relatively little attention. We studied plant nutrient‐acquisition strategies and nutrient‐use efficiency at three stages of pedogenesis in infertile soils from campos rupestres and on less infertile soil from cerrado sensu stricto in Brazil. All soils support very high plant diversity with high species turnover between soil types at small spatial scales (metres). We expected that differences in nutrient‐acquisition and ‐use strategies would be associated with this high species turnover. With severely decreasing phosphorus (P) availability, we expected the effectiveness of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbioses for plant P acquisition to decrease, and reliance on nonmycorrhizal strategies (NM) to increase, while maintaining efficient nutrient use. Concentrations of total soil P and nitrogen (N) were greater in soils in cerrado than in those from campos rupestres, and the more weathered soils from campos rupestres were severely P and N impoverished. The proportion of the root length colonized by AM fungi was 71% in the soils from the cerrado and 70%), but only moderate N‐remobilization efficiency (~50%). Synthesis. We observed very high P‐use efficiency and moderately high N‐use efficiency in campos rupestres and cerrado species, consistent with plant productivity being more strongly limited by P than by N. Our findings demonstrate that different soil characteristics (nutrient availability and soil texture) select for species differing in nutrient‐acquisition and ‐use strategies (especially below‐ground traits) which is likely key for the very high species turnover at a very small scale between soil types (i.e., beta‐dive
ISSN:0022-0477
1365-2745
DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.13111