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Research article2012Peer reviewed

The below-ground perspective of forest plants: soil provides mainly organic nitrogen for plants and mycorrhizal fungi

Inselsbacher, Erich; Näsholm, Torgny

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) availability has a major impact on a wide range of biogeochemical processes in terrestrial ecosystems. Changes in N availability modify the capacity of plants to sequester carbon (C), but despite the crucial importance for our understanding of terrestrial ecosystems, the relative contribution of different N forms to plant N nutrition in the field is not known. Until now, reliably assessing the highly dynamic pool of plant-available N in soil microsites was virtually impossible, because of the lack of adequate sampling techniques. For the first time we have applied a novel microdialysis technique for disturbance-free monitoring of diffusive fluxes of inorganic and organic N in 15 contrasting boreal forest soils in situ. We found that amino acids accounted for 80% of the soil N supply, while ammonium and nitrate contributed only 10% each. In contrast to common soil extractions, microdialysis revealed that the majority of amino acids are available for plant and mycorrhizal uptake. Our results suggest that the N supply of boreal forest soils is dominated by organic N as a major component of plant-available N and thus as a regulator of growth and C sequestration.

Keywords

amino acids; diffusive flux; microdialysis; plant nutrition; soil nutrients

Published in

New Phytologist
2012, volume: 195, number: 2, pages: 329-334
Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL

SLU Authors

Global goals (SDG)

SDG15 Life on land

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04169.x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/40659