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Grassland productivity limited by multiple nutrients.

  • Fay PA USDA-ARS Grassland Soil and Water Research Lab, Temple, Texas 76502, USA.
  • Prober SM CSIRO Land and Water Flagship, Private Bag 5, Wembley, Western Australia 6913, Australia.
  • Harpole WS Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
  • Knops JM School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
  • Bakker JD School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
  • Borer ET Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of MN, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
  • Lind EM Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of MN, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
  • MacDougall AS Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada.
  • Seabloom EW Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of MN, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
  • Wragg PD Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of MN, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
  • Adler PB Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA.
  • Blumenthal DM USDA-ARS Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, USA.
  • Buckley YM School of Natural Sciences, Zoology, Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
  • Chu C Research Station of Alpine Meadow and Wetland Ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
  • Cleland EE Ecology, Behavior &Evolution Section, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, California 92093, USA.
  • Collins SL Department of Biology, MSC03-2020, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 88003, USA.
  • Davies KF Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
  • Du G Research Station of Alpine Meadow and Wetland Ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
  • Feng X Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
  • Firn J School of Earth, Environment and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
  • Gruner DS Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
  • Hagenah N School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa.
  • Hautier Y Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, CH 3584, Netherlands.
  • Heckman RW Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
  • Jin VL USDA-ARS Agroecosystem Management Research Unit, Lincoln, Nebraska 68538, USA.
  • Kirkman KP School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa.
  • Klein J Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA.
  • Ladwig LM Department of Biology, MSC03-2020, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 88003, USA.
  • Li Q Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
  • McCulley RL Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546, USA.
  • Melbourne BA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
  • Mitchell CE Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
  • Moore JL School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.
  • Morgan JW Department of Botany, La Trobe University, Bundoora 3083, Victoria, Australia.
  • Risch AC Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Community Ecology, Birmensdorf 8903, Switzerland.
  • Schütz M Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Community Ecology, Birmensdorf 8903, Switzerland.
  • Stevens CJ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK.
  • Wedin DA School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583, USA.
  • Yang LH Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
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  • 2016-06-03
Published in:
  • Nature plants. - 2015
English Terrestrial ecosystem productivity is widely accepted to be nutrient limited(1). Although nitrogen (N) is deemed a key determinant of aboveground net primary production (ANPP)(2,3), the prevalence of co-limitation by N and phosphorus (P) is increasingly recognized(4-8). However, the extent to which terrestrial productivity is co-limited by nutrients other than N and P has remained unclear. Here, we report results from a standardized factorial nutrient addition experiment, in which we added N, P and potassium (K) combined with a selection of micronutrients (K+μ), alone or in concert, to 42 grassland sites spanning five continents, and monitored ANPP. Nutrient availability limited productivity at 31 of the 42 grassland sites. And pairwise combinations of N, P, and K+μ co-limited ANPP at 29 of the sites. Nitrogen limitation peaked in cool, high latitude sites. Our findings highlight the importance of less studied nutrients, such as K and micronutrients, for grassland productivity, and point to significant variations in the type and degree of nutrient limitation. We suggest that multiple-nutrient constraints must be considered when assessing the ecosystem-scale consequences of nutrient enrichment.
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  • English
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green
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/208655
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