Tree Growth Response to Soil nutrients and Neighborhood Crowding Varies between Mycorrhizal Types
Tree growth is an important part of forest dynamics, and revealing its driving factors is the basis for predicting forest community dynamics. During the growth and development of plants, the symbiosis between trees and mycorrhizal fungi (e.g. arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), ectomycorrhizal (EM) and dual-mycorrhizal (AEM)) can improve species ability to absorb nutrients and adapt to the local environment, which ultimately results in the difference of species response to biotic and abiotic factors. However, it remains unclear how species with different mycorrhizal associations exhibit growth responses to local abiotic and biotic gradients.
In a study published in Oecologia, Prof. Hao Zhanqing and Dr. Ren Jing from Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cooperating with Prof. Claire Fortunel from Institute de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), using a continuous 10-year tree growth data recording by the dendrometer band of 709 individual trees from 25 species in 25ha Changbaishan Forest Dynamics Plot. Combined with census data, soil data, individual-level functional traits and species-level functional traits data, they employed hierarchical Bayesian model to explored how the growth response to soil nutrients and competition differ among AM, EM and AEM species.
The researchers found that soil nutrients decreased AM tree growth, while competition reduced both AM and EM tree growth, and neither soil nor competition impacted AEM tree growth. Although individual-level traits (e.g. leaf area) were stronger predictors of tree growth than species-level traits across mycorrhizal types, most traits can hardly capture differences in tree growth response to soil nutrients and competition.
These findings highlight the importance of integrating information on tree mycorrhizal associations and individual-level traits to improve our understanding of the drivers of tree growth and forest dynamics.
The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and entitled "Tree growth response to soil nutrients and neighborhood crowding varies between mycorrhizal types in an old-growth temperate forest".
Contact
YUE Qian
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tel: 86-24-83970324
E-mail: yueqian@iae.ac.cn
