Abstract:

Bamboo ecology and nutrient management require guidance of a set of theoretical principles. By focusing on the contents of multiple nutrient elements and their ratios and summarizing recent research findings in biology, ecology and silvics of bamboos, this paper seeks to establish the bamboo ecological stoichiometry (BES) in order to support the sustainable development of bamboo forests. It is considered that: (1) bamboos have the ubiquitous characteristics of stoichiometry, with average leaf C:N:P of 380:16:1, which complies to the “homeostasis hypothesis”; (2) the internal factors such as organs, ages and development stages and the external factors such as soil, climate and harvest can all affect the characteristics of bamboo stoichiometry; (3) changes in the ecological stoichiometry of bamboos affect the bamboo biological and ecological processes including photosynthesis, nutrients uptakes, flowering, shootings and growth, community dynamics, and qualities of bamboo products; (4) the principles of BES have been preliminarily used to guide the nutrient diagnosis, balanced fertilization, and production of high-quality and high-yield bamboos. As a new tool, BES can be further improved to integrate biology and silviculture under the background of ecological and environmental protection and food safety. Future research should place more emphasis on elucidating the ecological homeostatic mechanisms for more bamboos, as well as on understanding the stoichiometric principles in producing high-quality bamboo shoots, the bamboo-soil stoichiometric interaction processes, the nutrient diagnosis and stoichiometric balanced fertilization, and the optimal ecosystem management of bamboo forests.

Key words: bamboo, ecological stoichiometry, homeostatic hypothesis, growth rate hypothesis, match and mismatch, nutrition diagnosis, balanced fertilization, optimal management of ecosystem, silvics of bamboo forest