Journal
PLANT AND SOIL
Volume 374, Issue 1-2, Pages 345-358Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11104-013-1802-1
Keywords
Legumes; N-2 fixation; Reference plant; N-15 natural abundance; N-15 isotope dilution
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Funding
- C L Behms fond for baljvaxtodling
- Regional Jordbruksforskning for norra Sverige, RJN
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Transfer of fixed N from legumes to non-legume reference plants may alter the N-15 signature of the reference plant as compared to the soil N available to the legume. This study investigates how N transfer influences the result of N-15-based N-2 fixation measurements. We labelled either legumes or non-legumes with N-15 and performed detailed analyses of N-15 enrichment in mixed plant communities in the field. The results were used in a conceptual model comparing how different N transfer scenarios influenced the N-15 signatures of legumes and reference plants, and how the resulting N-2 fixation estimate was influenced by using reference plants in pure stand or in mixture with the legume. Based on isotopic signatures, N transfer was detected in all directions: from legume to legume, from legume to non-legume, from non-legume to legume, from non-legume to non-legume. In the scenario of multidirectional N transfer, N-2 fixation was overestimated by using a reference plant in pure stand. Fixed N transferred to neighbouring reference plants modifies the N-15 signature of the soil N available both to the reference plant and the N-2-fixing legume. This provides strong support for using reference plants growing in mixture with the legumes for reliable quantifications of N-2 fixation.
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