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Plant species richness in a natural Argentinian matorral shrub-land correlates negatively with levels of plant phosphorus

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to ascertain whether there is a relationship between plant species richness and plant-available N, P and water in an environment subject to little anthropogenic disturbance. To accomplish this we studied the vegetation in matorral shrub-lands in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Due to the variation in slope, precipitation and aspect between the sites water status was determined using the 12C/13C fraction, δ13C, to investigate whether this was a confounding factor. The numbers of herb, shrub, liana and tree species were determined at 20 sites along an estimated precipitation gradient. Leaf P and N content and the δ13C of Berberis buxifolia were determined, as well as the soil P and N content at the different sites. A negative correlation was found between species richness and Berberis buxifolia foliar P concentration (52% of the species richness variation was accounted for), and a positive correlation was found between plant species richness and Berberis buxifolia foliar N: P ratios (54% of the species richness variation was accounted for). The relationship between species richness and foliar P was seen when all layers of vegetation were included (trees, lianas, shrubs and herbs). Foliar N showed no correlation with species richness, while soil extractable NH4 showed a weak positive correlation with the number of shrub layer species (lianas, shrubs and trees). The species richness of the shrub layer increased with decreasing values of δ13C. Low soil P availability thus affects local species richness in the matorral shrub-lands of Patagonia in Argentina although the growth of vegetation in the area has been shown to be limited by N. We suggest that low P levels increase plant species richness because low soil P concentration is associated with a high P partitioning and high potential for niche separation.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Priscilla Edwards and Cecilia Ezcurra at CRUB for their assistance during Ylva-Li Blank’s field work in Argentina and Maria Julia Mazzarino at CRUB for supplying relevant articles. We also thank Germund Tyler for useful comments on the content of the manuscript. This research was funded by The Linnaeus-Palme Foundation, SIDA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Ecology and Systematics, Department of Ecology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Ylva-Li Blanck, Linda-Maria Mårtensson & Jakob Sandberg

  2. Laboratorio Ecotono, CONICET-INIBIOMA-CRUB, Bariloche, Argentina

    Juan Gowda

  3. Landscape Management, Design and Construction, Swedish University of Agriculture, Uppsala, Sweden

    Ann-Mari Fransson

Authors
  1. Ylva-Li Blanck
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  2. Juan Gowda
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  3. Linda-Maria Mårtensson
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  4. Jakob Sandberg
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  5. Ann-Mari Fransson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ylva-Li Blanck.

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Responsible Editor: Harry Olde Venterink.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Tables 2, 3

Table 2 The mean number of plant species, mean number of liana shrub and tree species, mean number of herb species, mean soil N concentration, mean soil P concentration, mean soil pH, mean soil organic matter content, and mean soil water content at 20 matorral shrub land sites in the Nahuel Huapi National Park, in order of increasing approximated annual precipitation
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Table 3 Leaf N concentration, leaf P concentration, individual leaf biomass and leaf N: P molar ratio in 20 matorral shrub-land sites in the Nahuel Huapi National Park, in order of increasing approximated mean annual precipitation
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Blanck, YL., Gowda, J., Mårtensson, LM. et al. Plant species richness in a natural Argentinian matorral shrub-land correlates negatively with levels of plant phosphorus. Plant Soil 345, 11–21 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0671-0

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