Resource-based niches provide a basis for plant species diversity and dominance in arctic tundra

被引:717
作者
McKane, RB [1 ]
Johnson, LC
Shaver, GR
Nadelhoffer, KJ
Rastetter, EB
Fry, B
Giblin, AE
Kielland, K
Kwiatkowski, BL
Laundre, JA
Murray, G
机构
[1] US EPA, Corvallis, OR 97333 USA
[2] Kansas State Univ, Div Biol, Manhattan, KS 66506 USA
[3] US Forest Serv, Inst Pacific Isl Forestry, USDA, Honolulu, HI 96813 USA
[4] Marine Biol Lab, Ctr Ecosyst, Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA
[5] Univ Alaska, Inst Arctic Biol, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
[6] Appalachian Mt Club, Gorham, NH 03581 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
D O I
10.1038/415068a
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Ecologists have long been intrigued by the ways co-occurring species divide limiting resources. Such resource partitioning, or niche differentiation, may promote species diversity by reducing competition(1,2). Although resource partitioning is an important determinant of species diversity and composition in animal communities(3), its importance in structuring plant communities has been difficult to resolve(4). This is due mainly to difficulties in studying how plants compete for belowground resources(5). Here we provide evidence from a N-15-tracer field experiment showing that plant species in a nitrogen-limited, arctic tundra community were differentiated in timing, depth and chemical form of nitrogen uptake, and that species dominance was strongly correlated with uptake of the most available soil nitrogen forms. That is, the most productive species used the most abundant nitrogen forms, and less productive species used less abundant forms. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation that the composition of a plant community is related to partitioning of differentially available forms of a single limiting resource.
引用
收藏
页码:68 / 71
页数:4
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