Resource-based niches provide a basis for plant species diversity and dominance in arctic tundra
Resource-based niches provide a basis for plant species diversity and dominance in arctic tundra
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DOI：
10.1038/415068a
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发表时间：
2002-01-03
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Murray, G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
McKane, RB;Johnson, LC;Murray, G
生态学家长期以来一直对共生物种划分有限资源的方式感兴趣。这种资源划分或生态位分化可能通过减少竞争来促进物种多样性(1，2)。虽然资源分配是动物群落物种多样性和组成的一个重要决定因素(3)，但它在构建植物群落中的重要性一直难以解决(4)。这主要是由于研究植物如何竞争地下资源的困难(5)。在这里，我们提供了来自N-15示踪剂田间试验的证据，表明在氮素有限的北极冻土带群落中，植物物种在氮素吸收的时间、深度和化学形式上存在差异，物种优势与土壤中最有效氮素的吸收密切相关。也就是说，生产力最高的树种使用最丰富的氮素形态，生产力较低的树种使用较少的氮素形态。据我们所知，这是第一个关于植物群落的组成与单一有限资源的不同可用形式的划分有关的文献。
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.