Species-, Community-, and Ecosystem-Level Consequences of the Interactions Among Multiple Resources

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All plants need to acquire at least 15 elements from their environment including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur. In addition to these element resources, plants also require light and water. Although the relative requirement for these resources by plants remains relatively constant, their relative availability in the environment can vary drastically in both space and time. Plants must therefore adjust to this variability in resource availability to maintain a balanced nutrition. The relative success of various species in making this adjustment will in part determine the productivity of the ecosystem, the composition of the plant community, the species diversity, the rates of nutrient cycling, and the rate of CO2 storage or loss. In this grant, a theoretical foundation is established for understanding the complex interactions among multiple resources and the consequences of these interactions on species, on communities of plants, and on ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration. The theory is then tested using data from the Arctic Tundra Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in northern Alaska.