Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2011, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (1): 1-8.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1258.2011.00001

• Research Articles •     Next Articles

Relationship between leaf phosphorus concentration and soil phosphorus availability across Inner Mongolia grassland

GENG Yan, WU Yi, HE Jin-Sheng*()   

  1. Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Received:2010-04-16 Accepted:2010-08-25 Online:2011-04-16 Published:2011-01-24
  • Contact: HE Jin-Sheng

Abstract:

Aims Phosphorus status and N/P stoichiometry in plant leaves have been studied intensively with recent focus on large-scale patterns and driving factors. Studies of Chinese terrestrial plants found that leaf P was considerably lower than the global average, resulting in a higher N/P, probably due to the low soil total P content at the national scale. Inner Mongolia grassland offers a diverse array of taxa and soil conditions to examine the correlation between leaf and soil P concentrations. Our objective was to determine how and to what extent soil total and available P modify leaf P across the study region.
Methods Leaf samples of 57 species were collected at 36 sites across Inner Mongolia grassland during July and August 2007. We determined leaf P concentration, N/P, soil total and available P concentrations and tested pairwise relationships between leaf and soil variables at species-by-site, inter-specific and inter-site levels.
Important findings Findings of relatively low leaf P and high N/P across Inner Mongolia grassland were consistent with previous findings. Neither soil total nor available P appeared to be related with leaf P concentration, although soil available P had a stronger explanatory power than soil total P content. Moreover, Inner Mongolian grassland did not show a great shortage of soil available P compared with USA, Australia and the global average. The hypothesis that low leaf P and high N/P of plants are caused by low soil P content do not hold in Inner Mongolian grassland. Instead, neither soil total nor available P shapes the pattern of leaf P and N/P across this grassland.

Key words: Inner Mongolia grassland, leaf N/P, leaf P concentration, soil available P content, soil total P content