Patterns and implications of plant-soil δ C and δ N values in African savanna ecosystems
Abstract: Southern African savannas are mixed plant communities where C trees co-exist with C grasses. Here foliar δ N and δ C were used as indicators of nitrogen uptake and of water use efficiency to investigate the effect of the rainfall regime on the use of nitrogen and water by herbaceous and wo...
| Publicado en: | Quaternary Research Vol. 73; no. 1; pp. 77 - 84 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Cambridge University Press
Jan2010
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=45658567&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 45658567 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00335894 2AW jtl: Quaternary Research issn: 00335894 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan2010 vid: 73 iid: 1 pid: 15979 pub: Cambridge University Press artinfo: ui: 45658567 10.1016/j.yqres.2008.11.004 ppf: 77 ppct: 7 formats: tig: atl: Patterns and implications of plant-soil δ C and δ N values in African savanna ecosystems aug: au: Wang, Lixin D'Odorico, Paolo Ries, Lydia Macko, Stephen A. affil: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, 291 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, 3011 Bren Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93103, USA su: Pattern perception Plant-soil relationships Radioisotopes Savanna ecology Rainfall Herbaceous plants Water efficiency Southern Africa Africa sug: subj: Southern Africa Africa Pattern perception Plant-soil relationships Radioisotopes Savanna ecology Rainfall Herbaceous plants Water efficiency keyword: Aridity C3 plants C4 plants Savanna Soil carbon Soil nitrogen Stable isotopes ab: Abstract: Southern African savannas are mixed plant communities where C trees co-exist with C grasses. Here foliar δ N and δ C were used as indicators of nitrogen uptake and of water use efficiency to investigate the effect of the rainfall regime on the use of nitrogen and water by herbaceous and woody plants in both dry and wet seasons. Foliar δ N increased as aridity rose for both C and C plants for both seasons, although the magnitude of the increase was different for C and C plants and for two seasons. Soil δ N also significantly increased with aridity. Foliar δ C increased with aridity for C plants in the wet season but not in the dry season, whereas in C plants the relationship was more complex and non-linear. The consistently higher foliar δ N for C plants suggests that C plants may be a superior competitor for nitrogen. The different foliar δ C relationships with rainfall may indicate that the C plants have an advantage when competing for water resources. The differences in water and nitrogen use likely collectively contribute to the tree–grass coexistence in savannas. Such differences facilitate interpretations of palaeo-vegetation composition variations and help predictions of vegetation composition changes under future climatic scenarios. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2010 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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