title: Scaling of nitrogen and phosphorus across plant organs in shrubland biomes across Northern China.
abstract: Allocation of limiting resources, such as nutrients, is an important adaptation strategy for plants. Plants may allocate different nutrients within a specific organ or the same nutrient among different organs. In this study, we investigated the allocation strategies of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in leaves, stems and roots of 126 shrub species from 172 shrubland communities in Northern China using scaling analyses. Results showed that N and P have different scaling relationships among plant organs. The scaling relationships of N concentration across different plant organs tended to be allometric between leaves and non-leaf organs, and isometric between non-leaf organs. Whilst the scaling relationships of P concentration tended to be allometric between roots and non-root organs, and isometric between non-root organs. In arid environments, plant tend to have higher nutrient concentration in leaves at given root or stem nutrient concentration. Evolutionary history affected the scaling relationships of N concentration slightly, but not affected those of P concentration. Despite fairly consistent nutrients allocation strategies existed in independently evolving lineages, evolutionary history and environments still led to variations on these strategies.
authors: Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Xian
authors: X
authors: Yang
authors: Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Zhiyao
authors: Z
authors: Tang
authors: Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Chengjun
authors: C
authors: Ji
authors: Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Hongyan
authors: H
authors: Liu
authors: College of Life Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China.
authors: Wenhong
authors: W
authors: Ma
authors: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China.
authors: Anwar
authors: A
authors: Mohhamot
authors: College of Agriculture, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China.
authors: Zhaoyong
authors: Z
authors: Shi
authors: College of Life Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Sun
authors: Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Tao
authors: T
authors: Wang
authors: College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
authors: Xiangping
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
authors: Xian
authors: X
authors: Wu
authors: Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
authors: Shunli
authors: S
authors: Yu
authors: College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Yue
authors: Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Chengyang
authors: C
authors: Zheng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D017753:Ecosystem; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D063246:Organogenesis, Plant / Q000502:physiology*; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000378:metabolism*; D018514:Plant Structures / Q000378:metabolism*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen