Journal
PLANT AND SOIL
Volume 406, Issue 1-2, Pages 117-129Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11104-016-2856-7
Keywords
Amino acid; Peptide; Nutrient; Coexistence; Niche differentiation
Categories
Funding
- National Environment Research Council NERC [CEH_L_069_05_2013]
- Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF [145973]
- BBSRC [BB/I009000/2]
- BBSRC [BB/I009000/2] Funding Source: UKRI
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/I009000/2] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Grass species may acquire different forms of nitrogen (N) to reduce competition for the same resources. Climate change influences the availability of soil N and is therefore likely to cause shifts in N forms acquired by plants, thereby affecting their competitive interactions. We investigated the effects of warming on the uptake of different N forms and competitive interactions of Festuca ovina and Anthoxanthum odoratum in a pot experiment. The plants were grown either in monocultures or mixture, and at ambient or elevated temperature (+10 A degrees C), and supplied with C-13 and N-15 isotopes to test for treatment effects on the relative uptake of ammonium, alanine or tri-alanine. Both grass species took up relatively more N supplied as ammonium than as alanine or tri-alanine when grown under ambient conditions in monoculture. In contrast, when grown in mixtures, F. ovina took up the three supplied N forms in equal amounts, whereas A. odoratum switched to tri-alanine as the main N form. Under warmed conditions, both species took up the N forms equally, irrespective of competition treatments. We have shown that grass species grown in mixture and under ambient conditions reduce competition by acquiring different N forms. Warming increased the availability of inorganic N in the soil and therefore deregulated the need for differential uptake of N forms.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available