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Responses of leaf C:N:P stoichiometry to water supply in the desert shrub Zygophyllum xanthoxylum.
- Source :
- Plant Biology; Jan2019, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p82-88, 7p
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Based on the elemental composition of major biochemical molecules associated with different biological functions, the 'growth rate hypothesis' proposed that organisms with a higher growth rate would be coupled to lower C:N, especially lower C:P and N:P ratios. However, the applicability of the growth rate hypothesis for plants is unclear, especially for shrubs growing under different water supply.We performed an experiment with eight soil moisture levels (soil water content: 4%, 6%, 8%, 13%, 18%, 23%, 26% and 28%) to evaluate the effects of water availability on leaf C:N:P stoichiometry in the shrub Zygophyllum xanthoxylum.We found that leaves grew slowly and favored accumulation of P over C and N under both high and low water supply. Thus, leaf C:P and N:P ratios were unimodally related to soil water content, in parallel with individual leaf area and mass. As a result, there were significant positive correlations between leaf C:P and N:P with leaf growth (u).Our result that slower‐growing leaves had lower C:P and N:P ratios does not support the growth rate hypothesis, which predicted a negative association of N:P ratio with growth rate, but it is consistent with recent theoretical derivations of growth–stoichiometry relations in plants, where N:P ratio is predicted to increase with increasing growth for very low growth rates, suggesting leaf growth limitation by C and N rather than P for drought and water saturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- WATER supply
STOICHIOMETRY
SOIL moisture
PLANT growth
PLANT nutrients
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14358603
- Volume :
- 21
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Plant Biology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 133560902
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12897