Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Effects of water supply on plant stoichiometry of C, N, P in Inner Mongolia grasslands

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Plant and Soil Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Aims

Plant stoichiometry is known to influence ecological processes and element cycles in ecosystems, which in turn can all be affected by ongoing climate change. While previous studies mainly focused on warming, drought or species invasion, effects of changing water supply on plant stoichiometry have not been well explored.

Methods

To study how water supply affects plant stoichiometry (here C:N, N:P), and whether such effects differ among plant species, a manipulative experiment was conducted in which four grass species (Leymus chinensis, Stipa grandis, Artemisia frigida and Potentilla acaulis) dominant in the Inner Mongolia steppe were subjected to a gradient of water supply via changes in growing-season rainfall.

Results

Water supply significantly impacted C:N and N:P, and these effects differed among grass species. Specifically, while C:N of A. frigida and P. acaulis was unaffected by water supply, C:N of L. chinensis and S. grandis increased with increasing precipitation. Furthermore, N:P of A. frigida showed a unimodal pattern along the imposed precipitation gradient. Whereas aboveground and belowground N:P showed similar trends (but different patterns) with changing water supply, this was not the case for aboveground and belowground C:N. As a result, plant stoichiometry between aboveground and belowground parts followed an allometric pattern.

Conclusions

Changes in water supply can significantly modulate plant stoichiometry. These results could improve our understanding of the dynamics of grasslands under climate change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abramoff RZ, Finzi AC (2015) Are above- and below-ground phenology in sync? New Phytol 205:1054–1061

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aerts R, Chapin FS III (2000) The mineral nutrition of wild plants revisited: a re-evaluation of processes and patterns. Adv Ecol Res 30:1–67

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ågren G (2008) Stoichiometry and nutrition of plant growth in natural communities. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 39:153–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benestad RE, Nychka D, Mearns LO (2012) Spatially and temporally consistent prediction of heavy precipitation from mean values. Nat Clim Change 2:544–547

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloom AJ, Chapin FS, Mooney HA (1985) Resource limitation in plants-an economic analogy. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 16:363–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng DL, Niklas KJ (2007) Above- and below-ground biomass relationships across 1534 forested communities. Ann Botany 99:95–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cottingham KL, Lennon JT, Brown BL (2005) Knowing when to draw the line: designing more information ecological experiments. Front Ecol Environ 3:145–152

  • De Frenne P, Kolb A, Graae BJ, Decocq G et al (2011) A latitudinal gradient in seed nutrients of the forest herb Anemone nemorosa Plant Biol 13:493–501

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Kroon H, Hutchings MJ (1995) Morphological plasticity in clonal plants — the foraging concept reconsidered. J Ecol 83:143–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Neve S, Hofman G (2002) Quantifying soil water effects on nitrogen mineralization from soil organic matter and from fresh crop residues. Biol Fertil Soils 35:379–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diffenbaugh NS, Field CB (2013) Changes in ecologically critical terrestrial climate conditions. Science 341:486–492

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DuBois K, Williams SL, Stachowicz JJ (2020) Previous exposure mediates the responses of eelgrass to future warming via clonal transgenerational plasticity. Ecology 101:e03169

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elser JJ, Fagan WF, Denno RF, Dobberfuhl DR, Folarin A, Huberty A, Interlandi S, Kilham SS, McCauley E, Schulz KL, Siemann EH, Sterner RW (2000) Nutritional constrains in terrestrial and freshwater food webs. Nature 408:578–580

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elser JJ, Fagan W, Kerkhoff A, Swenson N, Enquist BJ (2010) Biological stoichiometry of plant production: metabolism, scaling and ecological response to global change. New Phytol 186:593–608

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Enquist BJ, Niklas J (2002) Global allocation rules for patterns of biomass partitioning in seed plants. Science 295:1517–1520

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Falster DS, Warton DI, Wright IJ (2006) User’s Guide to SMATR: Standardised Major Axis Tests and Routines: Version 2.0

  • Fang Z, Li D, Jiao F, Yao J, Du H (2019) The latitudinal patterns of leaf and soil C:N:P stoichiometry in the Loss Plateau of China. Front Plant Sci 10:85

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin SB, Olejniczak P, Samulak E et al (2020) Clonal plants in disturbed mountain forests: heterogeneity enhances ramet integration. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 44:125533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gedroc JJ, McConnaughay DM, Coleman JS (1996) Plasticity in root/shoot partitioning: optimal, ontogenetic, or both? Funct Ecol 10:44–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guiz J, Hillebrand H, Borer ET, Abbas M et al (2016) Long-term effects of plant diversity and composition on plant stoichiometry. Oikos 125:613–621

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Güsewell S (2004) N:P ratios in terrestrial plants: variation and functional significance. New Phytol 164:243–266

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Güsewell S, Koerselman W (2002) Variation in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of wetland plants. Perspectives in Ecology. Evol Syst 5:37–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Han W, Fang J, Guo D, Zhang Y (2005) Leaf nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry across 753 terrestrial plant species in China. New Phytol 168:377–385

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • He J, Fang J, Wang Z, Guo D, Flynn DF, Geng Z (2006) Stoichiometry and large-scale patterns of leaf carbon and nitrogen in the grassland biomes of China. Oecologia 149:115–122

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • He W, Yu F, Zhang L (2010) Physiological integration impacts nutrient use and stoichiometry in three clonal plants under heterogeneous habitats. Ecol Res 25:967–972

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang J, Yu H, Wang L, Ma K, Kang Y, Du Y (2017) Effects of different nitrogen: phosphorus levels on the growth and ecological stoichiometry of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Chin J Plant Ecol 41:325–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isles PDF (2020) The misuse of ratios in ecological stoichiometry. Ecology 101:e03153

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs BS, Latimer AM (2012) Analyzing reaction norm variation in the field vs. greenhouse: comparing studies of plasticity and its adaptive value in two species of Erodium Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 14:325–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jin L, Gu Y, Yang T, Wu Q, Yuan D, Xie M, Chang S, Pan Y (2021) Relationships between allometric patterns of the submerged macrophyte Vallisneria natans, its stoichiometric characteristics, and the water exchange rate. Ecol Indic 131L108120

  • Koerselman W, Meuleman AFM (1996) The vegetation N:P ratio: a new tool to detect the nature of nutrient limitation. J Appl Ecol 33:1441–1450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreyling J, Beier C (2013) Complexity in climate change manipulation experiments. Bioscience 63:763–767

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreyling J, Khan MASA, Sultana F, Babel W, Beierkuhnlein C, Foken T, Walter J, Jentsch A (2017) Drought effects in climate change manipulation experiments: quantifying the influence of ambient weather conditions and rain-out shelter artifacts. Ecosystems 20:301–315

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li J, Li Z (2002) Clonal morphological plasticity and biomass allocation pattern of Artemisia frigida and Potentilla acaulis under different grazing intensities. Acta Phytoecologica Sinica 26:435–440

    Google Scholar 

  • Li J, Li Z, Ren J (2005) Effect of grazing intensity on clonal morphological plasticity and biomass allocation patterns of Artemisia frigida and Potentilla acaulis in the Inner Mongolia steppe. New Z J Agric Res 48:57–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang J, Yuan W, Gao J et al (2020) Soil resource heterogeneity competitively favors an invasive clonal plant over a native one. Oecologia 193:155–165

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Li Z, Dong M, Ivan N, Jan B, El-Bana MI (2007) Small-scale spatial associations between Artemisia frigida and Potentilla acaulis at different intensities of sheep grazing. Appl Veg Sci 10:139–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Xu M, Li G, Wang M, Li Z, De Boeck HJ (2021) Changes of aboveground and belowground biomass allocation in four dominant grassland species across a precipitation gradient. Front Plant Sci 12:650802

  • Liu H, Wang H, Li N, Shao J, Zhou X, van Groenigen KJ, Thakur MP (2022) Phenological mismatches between above- and belowground plant responses to climate change. Nat Clim Change 12:97–102

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ma R, Fang Y, An S (2016) Ecological stoichiometry of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and C:N:P in shoots and litter of plants in grassland in Yunwu Mountain. Acta Pedol Sin 53:1170–1180

    Google Scholar 

  • Matejovic I (1997) Determination of carbon and nitrogen in samples of various soils by the dry combustion. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 28:1499–1511

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Minden V, Kleyer M (2014) Internal and external regulation of plant organ stoichiometry. Plant Biol 16:897–907

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mo Q, Zou B, Li Y, Chen Y, Zhang W, Mao R, Ding Y, Wang J, Lu X, Li X, Tang J, Li Z, Wang F (2015) Response of plant nutrient stoichiometry to fertilization varied with plant tissues in a tropical forest. Sci Rep 5:14605

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Niklas KJ (2005) Modelling below- and above-ground biomass for non-woody and woody plants. Ann Bot 95:315–321

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Niklas KJ, Cobb EC (2005) N, P and C stoichiometry of Eranthis hyemalis (Ranunculaceae) and the allometry of plant growth. Am J Bot 92:1256–1263

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Niu D, Zhang C, Ma P, Fu H, Elser JJ (2019) Responses of leaf C:N:P stoichiometry to water supply in the desert shrub Zygophyllum xanthoxylum Plant Biol 21:82–88

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reich PB, Oleksyn J (2004) Global patterns of plant leaf N and P in relation to temperature and latitude. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:11001–11006

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sardans J, Penuelas J (2008) Drought changes nutrient sources, content and stoichiometry in the bryophyte Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. growing in a Mediterranean forest. J Bryology 30:59–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sardans J, Penuelas J (2012) The role of plants in the effects of global change on nutrient availability and stoichiometry in the plant-soil system. Plant Physiol 160:1741–1761

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sardans J, Penuelas J, Estiarte M (2006) Warming and drought alter soil phosphatase activity and soil P availability in a Mediterranean shrubland. Plant Soil 289:227–238

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sardans J, Penuelas J, Estiarte M, Prieto P (2008) Warming and drought alter C and N concentration, allocation and accumulation in a Mediterranean shrubland. Glob Change Biol 14:2304–2316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schreeg LA, Santiago LS, Wright SJ, Turner BL (2014) Stem, root, and older leaf N:P ratios are more responsive indicators of soil nutrient availability than new foliage. Ecology 95:2062–2068

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schuster MJ, Smith NG, Dukes JS (2016) Responses of aboveground C and N pools to rainfall variability and nitrogen deposition are mediated by seasonal precipitation and plant community dynamics. Biogeochemistry 129:389–400

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shi R (1994) Agricultural and chemical analysis for soil. Science Press, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Tian D, Yan Z, Fang J (2018) Plant stoichiometry: a research frontier in ecology. Chin J Nat 40:235–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Urbina I, Sardans J, Beierkuhnlein C, Jentsch A, Backhaus S, Grant K, Freylling J, Penuelas J (2015) Shifts in the elemental composition of plants during a very severe drought. Environ Exp Bot 111:63–73

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wang L, Li L, Chen X, Tian X, Wang X, Luo G (2014) Biomass allocation patterns across China’s terrestrial biomes. PLoS ONE 9:e93566

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wang W, Sardans J, Wang C, Zeng C, Tong C, Asensio D, Penuelas J (2015) Ecological stoichiometry of C, N and P of invasive Phragmites australis and native Cyperus malaccensis species in the Minjiang river tidal estuarine wetlands of China. Plant Ecol 216:809–822

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westra S, Fowler HJ, Evans JP, Alexander LV, Berg P, Johnson F, Kendon EJ, Lenderink G, Roberts NM (2014) Future changes to the intensity and frequency of short-duration extreme rainfall. Rev Geophys 52:522–555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yan Z, Li X, Tian D, Han W, Hou X, Shen H, Guo Y, Fang J (2018) Nutrient addition affects scaling relationship of leaf nitrogen to phosphorus in Arabidopsis thaliana Funct Ecol 32:2689–2698

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou Y, Jiao L, Qin H, Li F (2021) Effect of environmental stress on the nutrient stoichiometry of the clonal plant Phragmites australis in inland riparian wetlands of northwest China. Front Plant Sci 12:705319

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Jinhua Li for the field assistance, and thank Yang Wang for the assistance of measuring the soil traits. Yongjie Liu holds a fund from the Key Research and Development Program of Forestry and Grassland Administration of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China-“Study on Construction Mode and Key Technology of Grassland Ecological Civilization Demonstration Area in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region”, and a star-up fund from Lanzhou University (508000-561119213). This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41571505).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhenqing Li.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Wen-Hao Zhang.

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 7
figure 7

Regressions between water supply and plant carbon, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the significant regressions are indicated by orange

Fig. 8
figure 8

Regressions between water supply and plant nitrogen, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the significant regressions are indicated by orange

Fig. 9
figure 9

Regressions between water supply and plant phosphorus, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the significant regressions are indicated by orange

Fig. 10
figure 10

Regressions between water supply and plant carbon of aboveground (indicated in black dot) and belowground (indicated in white dot) of plants, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the significant regressions are indicated by black for aboveground, while grey for belowground

Fig. 11
figure 11

Regressions between water supply and plant nitrogen of aboveground (indicated in black dot) and belowground (indicated in white dot) of plants, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the significant regressions are indicated by black for aboveground, while grey for belowground

Fig. 12
figure 12

Regressions between water supply and plant phosphorus of aboveground (indicated in black dot) and belowground (indicated in white dot) of plants, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the significant regressions are indicated by black for aboveground, while grey for belowground

Fig. 13
figure 13

Relationships of log-transformed carbon between aboveground and belowground of plants, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the isometric partitioning is indicated in blue. The 1:1 line (grey dotted) is added for clarity

Fig. 14
figure 14

Relationships of log-transformed nitrogen between aboveground and belowground of plants, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the isometric partitioning is indicated in blue. The 1:1 line (grey dotted) is added for clarity

Fig. 15
figure 15

Relationships of log-transformed phosphorus between aboveground and belowground of plants, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the isometric partitioning is indicated in blue. The 1:1 line (grey dotted) is added for clarity

Fig. 16
figure 16

Regressions between water supply and biomass allocation (i.e. ratio of belowground biomass and aboveground biomass) of plants, which is separated by species, i.e. Leymus chinensis (a), Stipa grandis (b), Artemisia frigida (c), and Potentilla acaulis (d), where the regressions were conducted with curve estimations, and linear, quadratic, power and exponential curves were tested. A better estimation is considered to have a smaller AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) and a more significant P-value

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, Y., Li, G., Wang, M. et al. Effects of water supply on plant stoichiometry of C, N, P in Inner Mongolia grasslands. Plant Soil 491, 115–132 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05467-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05467-5

Keywords

Navigation