Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium co‐limitation in terrestrial ecosystems: A global meta‐analysis

作者：Jingchun Fang, Baozhang Chen, Fei Wang, Weibin Li, Huifang Zhang, Junjun Fang, Shu’an Liu, Zichen Zheng, Man Guo, Shuli Niu · 发表于：Plants People Planet · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1002/ppp3.10524 · 被引用次数：25 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Soil and Water Nutrient Dynamics、Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology

Societal Impact Statement Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are essential elements for plant growth and are the primary nutrients in commercial fertilizers. However, the extent to which these nutrients individually limit plant growth is still unclear, as is the influence of their interactions. Using a meta‐analysis approach, plant growth was found to be co‐limited by nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Furthermore, these findings demonstrate that multiple nutrient additions are primarily additive, with the exception of synergistic effects observed with NP additions on plant growth. These findings are important as they provide a timely and valuable reference for assessing the ecosystem‐scale consequences of increasing nutrient deposition caused by human activities. Summary Numerous field studies and a few meta‐analyses have confirmed that terrestrial primary production is individually or jointly limited by nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Meanwhile, a recent synthesis emphasized that potassium (K) limitation in terrestrial ecosystems is more widespread than previously thought. However, it remains unclear whether N, P, and K co‐limit terrestrial production and how their interactions influence plant growth. Therefore, we conducted a globally comprehensive synthesis of a total 2877 observations to explore the individual and interactive effects of N, P, and K additions on plant growth. We found that N, P, K, NP, NK, PK, and NPK additions significantly increased aboveground biom...