The Response of Grasslands on Sugar-Limestone in Teesdale to Application of Phosphorus and Nitrogen

Jeffrey, David W.; Pigott, C. D.

doi:10.2307/2258918

Cited by 62 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Otherwise, such dominance of forbs in response to fertilization can also be observed at the patch scale in the agricultural landscape, for instance patches of stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) in cattle resting areas with high dung concentration. So, in contrast to BretHarte et al (2008) we propose that there are now three main types of cold biome community responses to NP fertilizations (see Appendix 1): (1) graminoid increase (Jeffrey and Pigott 1973;Bowman et al 1993;Theodose and Bowman 1997;Gerdol et al 2000;Bowman and Fisk 2001;Graglia et al 2001;Walker et al 2001;Gerdol et al 2002;Gough and Hobbie 2003), (2) deciduous shrub increase van Wijk et al 2003) and (3) dominant forb increase (e.g. our results for Geranium meadow).…”

Section: Functional Group Response To Fertilisationcontrasting

confidence: 95%

“…Altogether, while P and Ca play important roles in specific communities, our results generally support Körner's (2003b) hypothesis that vascular plant biomass production in alpine communities is mostly nitrogen limited. The same order of production limitation -first N, then P-was also reported for other alpine communities in different mountain areas (Jeffrey and Pigott 1973;Shatvoryan 1978;Molau and Alatalo 1998;Heer and Körner 2002).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…At the level of functional types such interactions are also likely to occur, but some general response patterns can still be detected by putting our findings into the broader context based on available results from fertilisation experiments in cool-temperate, alpine and arctic ecosystems in Appendix 1. Phosphorus fertilizations lead to increase in biomass of grasses (especially Festuca ovina) in several studies (Jeffrey and Pigott 1973;Bowman et al 1993; including ours. Festuca ovina has very low leaf P concentration in the study area (0.05%- Voronina et al 1986;0.022%-Soudzilovskaia et al 2005; mean for all plant species 0.16%- Voronina et al 1986) and compared to the global mean of 0.123% (Kattge et al 2011) and might be limited by this nutrient.…”

Section: Functional Group Response To Fertilisationmentioning

confidence: 49%

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Alpine plant functional group responses to fertiliser addition depend on abiotic regime and community composition

et al. 2012

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Background and aims We ask how productivity responses of alpine plant communities to increased nutrient availability can be predicted from abiotic regime and initial functional type composition. Methods We compared four Caucasian alpine plant communities (lichen heath, Festuca varia grassland, Geranium-Hedysarum meadow, snow bed community) forming a toposequence and contrasting in productivity and dominance structure for biomass responses to experimental fertilization (N, P, NP, Ca) and irrigation for 4-5 years. Results The dominant plants in more productive communities monopolized added N and P, at the expense of their neighbors. In three out of four communities, N and P fertilizations gave greater aboveground biomass increase than N or P fertilization alone, indicating overall co-limitation of N and P, with N being most limiting. Relative biomass increase in NP treatment was negatively related to biomass in control plots across the four communities. Grasses often responded more vigorously to P, but sedges to N alone. Finally, we present one of the rare examples of a forb showing a strong N or NP response. Conclusion Our findings will help improve our ability to predict community composition and biomass dynamics in cool ecosystems subject to changing nutrient availability as induced by climate or land-use changes.

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Section: Functional Group Response To Fertilisationcontrasting

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Functional Group Response To Fertilisationmentioning

confidence: 49%

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Alpine plant functional group responses to fertiliser addition depend on abiotic regime and community composition

et al. 2012

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“…At our ®eld site, an ongoing fertilizer trial so far revealed that productivity is primarily N limited, which is a common observation in calcareous grasslands (Smith et al 1971;Willems et al 1993) although sometimes a co-limitation by N and P is found (Jerey and Pigott 1973;Morecroft et al 1994). Addition of mineral N immediately stimulated non-legume aboveground biomass (which is >98% of the community aboveground biomass), while the addition of mineral P lead to a signi®cant and selective increase in legume biomass by year 2 (M. Ryf, personal communication).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Nutrient relations in calcareous grassland under elevated CO 2

Niklaus

Leadley

Stöcklin³

et al. 1998

Oecologia

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Plant nutrient responses to 4 years of CO 2 enrichment were investigated in situ in calcareous grassland. Beginning in year 2, plant aboveground C:N ratios were increased by 9% to 22% at elevated CO 2 (P < 0.01), depending on year. Total amounts of N removed in biomass harvests during the ®rst 4 years were not aected by elevated CO 2 (19.9 1.3 and 21.1 1.3 g N m A2 at ambient and elevated CO 2 ), indicating that the observed plant biomass increases were solely attained by dilution of nutrients. Total aboveground P and tissue N:P ratios also were not altered by CO 2 enrichment (12.5 2 g N g A1 P in both treatments). In contrast to non-legumes (>98% of community aboveground biomass), legume C/N was not reduced at elevated CO 2 and legume N:P was slightly increased. We attribute the less reduced N concentration in legumes at elevated CO 2 to the fact that virtually all legume N originated from symbiotic N 2 ®xation (%N dfa % 90%), and thus legume growth was not limited by soil N. While total plant N was not aected by elevated CO 2 , microbial N pools increased by +18% under CO 2 enrichment (P 0.04) and plant available soil N decreased. Hence, there was a net increase in the overall biotic N pool, largely due increases in the microbial N pool. In order to assess the eects of legumes for ecosystem CO 2 responses and to estimate the degree to which plant growth was P-limited, two greenhouse experiments were conducted, using ®rstly undisturbed grassland monoliths from the ®eld site, and secondly designed`microcosm' communities on natural soil. Half the microcosms were planted with legumes and half were planted without. Both monoliths and microcosms were exposed to elevated CO 2 and P fertilization in a factored design. After two seasons, plant N pools in both unfertilized monoliths and microcosm communities were unaected by CO 2 enrichment, similar to what was found in the ®eld. However, when P was added total plant N pools increased at elevated CO 2 . This community-level eect originated almost solely from legume stimulation. The results suggest a complex interaction between atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, N and P supply. Overall ecosystem productivity is N-limited, whereas CO 2 eects on legume growth and their N 2 ®xation are limited by P. Key words Dinitrogen ®xation á Plant functional types á legumes á Nutrient limitation á Phosphorus IntroductionMost studies of vascular plant responses to atmospheric CO 2 enrichment show an enhancement of growth when carried out under sucient nutrient supply. In natural environments, plant productivity is often limited by the availability of mineral nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus (Vitousek and Howarth 1991) which in turn may limit the stimulation of plant growth by CO 2 enrichment. This underlines the importance of considering plant nutrient status in understanding their growth responses to increased CO 2 concentrations (Woodward et al. 1991;Overdieck 1993;KoÈ rner 1995b

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“…In calcareous grassland in England, addition of nitrogen hardly stimulated dominance of grasses (Smith et al, 1971;Jeffrey and Pigott, 1973). In these studies, with application of 50-100 kg N ha -1 yr -1 and a further addition of phosphorus, a strong dominance of the grasses Festuca rubra, F. ovina or Agrostis stolonifera was observed.…”

Section: Perennial Calcareous Grassland and Basic Steppes (E12)mentioning

confidence: 84%

Potential Approaches to Developing Lichen-Based Critical Loads and Levels for Nitrogen, Sulfur and Metal-Containing Atmospheric Pollutants in North America

Glavich¹,

Geiser²

2008

The Bryologist

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The Response of Grasslands on Sugar-Limestone in Teesdale to Application of Phosphorus and Nitrogen

Cited by 62 publications

References 4 publications

Alpine plant functional group responses to fertiliser addition depend on abiotic regime and community composition

Alpine plant functional group responses to fertiliser addition depend on abiotic regime and community composition

Nutrient relations in calcareous grassland under elevated CO 2

Potential Approaches to Developing Lichen-Based Critical Loads and Levels for Nitrogen, Sulfur and Metal-Containing Atmospheric Pollutants in North America

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