C:N:P stoichiometry in China's forests: From organs to ecosystems

作者：Jiahui Zhang, Ning Zhao, Congcong Liu, Hao Yang, Meiling Li, Guirui Yu, Kevin R. Wilcox, Qiang Yu, Nianpeng He · 发表于：Functional Ecology · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1111/1365-2435.12979 · 被引用次数：290 · 研究领域：Plant and animal studies、Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

Abstract Ecological stoichiometry connects different levels of biology, from the gene to the globe, by scaling up elemental ratios (e.g. carbon [C], nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]). Thus, ecological stoichiometry could be a powerful tool for revealing certain physiological processes of plants. However, C:N:P stoichiometry remains unclear at the community and ecosystem levels, despite it being potentially important for primary productivity. In this study, we measured the C, N and P contents of different plant organs, litter and soil in nine natural forest ecosystems (from cold‐temperate to tropical forests along a 3,700‐km transect in China) to explore C:N:P stoichiometry and the main influencing factors. C:N:P stoichiometry was evaluated for different components in the forest ecosystems (plant community, soil, litter and ecosystem) and, at the community level, for different organs (leaves, branches, trunks and roots) from 803 plant species. The ratios of C:P and N:P decreased with increasing latitude, with spatial patterns being primarily regulated by climate. Interestingly, the homeostasis of N, P and N:P was highest in leaves, followed by branches, roots and trunks, supporting the hypothesis that more active organs have a higher capacity to maintain relatively stable element content and ratios. At the community level, the leaf N:P ratio indicated increasing P limitation in forests of lower latitude (i.e. more southerly) in China's forests. Our findings demonstrate the spat...