Empirical support for the biogeochemical niche hypothesis in forest trees

Sardans, J., Vallicrosa, H., Zuccarini, P., Farré-Armengol, G., Fernández-Martínez, M., Peguero, G., Gargallo-Garriga, A., Ciais, P., et al. (2021). Empirical support for the biogeochemical niche hypothesis in forest trees. Nature Ecology & Evolution 5 184-194. 10.1038/s41559-020-01348-1.

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Abstract

The possibility of using the elemental compositions of species as a tool to identify species/genotype niche remains to be tested at a global scale. We investigated relationships between the foliar elemental compositions (elementomes) of trees at a global scale with phylogeny, climate, N deposition and soil traits. We analysed foliar N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S concentrations in 23,962 trees of 227 species. Shared ancestry explained 60–94% of the total variance in foliar nutrient concentrations and ratios whereas current climate, atmospheric N deposition and soil type together explained 1–7%, consistent with the biogeochemical niche hypothesis which predicts that each species will have a specific need for and use of each bio-element. The remaining variance was explained by the avoidance of nutritional competition with other species and natural variability within species. The biogeochemical niche hypothesis is thus able to quantify species-specific tree niches and their shifts in response to environmental changes.

Item Type:	Article
Research Programs:	Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) > Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems (EM)
Depositing User:	Luke Kirwan
Date Deposited:	11 Jan 2021 07:56
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2021 17:34
URI:	https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/16980

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