@article{6621071e8f6f4490a3f137fe44e9536e,
title = "Phosphatase activity and nitrogen fixation reflect species differences, not nutrient trading or nutrient balance, across tropical rainforest trees",
abstract = "A fundamental biogeochemical paradox is that nitrogen-rich tropical forests contain abundant nitrogen-fixing trees, which support a globally significant tropical carbon sink. One explanation for this pattern holds that nitrogen-fixing trees can overcome phosphorus limitation in tropical forests by synthesizing phosphatase enzymes to acquire soil organic phosphorus, but empirical evidence remains scarce. We evaluated whether nitrogen fixation and phosphatase activity are linked across 97 trees from seven species, and tested two hypotheses for explaining investment in nutrient strategies: trading nitrogen-for-phosphorus or balancing nutrient demand. Both strategies varied across species but were not explained by nitrogen-for-phosphorus trading or nutrient balance. This indicates that (1) studies of these nutrient strategies require broad sampling within and across species, (2) factors other than nutrient trading must be invoked to resolve the paradox of tropical nitrogen fixation, and (3) nitrogen-fixing trees cannot provide a positive nitrogen-phosphorus-carbon feedback to alleviate nutrient limitation of the tropical carbon sink.",
keywords = "Biodiversity, biogeochemical niche, biogeochemistry, nitrogen, nutrient acquisition, nutrient limitation, nutrient strategy, phosphorus, tropical carbon sink",
author = "Batterman, {Sarah A.} and Hall, {Jefferson S.} and Turner, {Benjamin L.} and Hedin, {Lars O.} and {LaHaela Walter}, {J. Kimiko} and Pete Sheldon and {van Breugel}, Michiel",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Julio Rodriguez, Aleksandra Bielnicka, Dayana Agudo, Federico Davies, Daniela Weber, Daniel Stanton and Joe von Fischer for field and laboratory support. This work is a contribution of the Agua Salud Project, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and the Ministry of the Environment of Panama (MiAmbiente). Agua Salud is part of the Smithsonian Institution Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO{\textregistered}) and the native species plantations are part of the Smart Reforestation{\textregistered}, BiodiversiTREE and TreeDivNet programs. This research was supported by ForestGEO{\textregistered}, the Heising-Simons Foundation, HSBC, Stanley Motta, Small World Institute Fund, Smithsonian Institution{\textquoteright}s Competitive Grants for Science, Smithsonian Institution{\textquoteright}s Grand Challenges, the Hoch family, National Science Foundation (NSF grant EAR-1360391), National University of Singapore, STRI and Yale-NUS college. Princeton University, Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton Carbon Mitigation Initiative (with funding from BP), the STRI short term fellowship program, University of Leeds and a United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/M019497/1) provided support for SAB. Funding Information: We thank Julio Rodriguez, Aleksandra Bielnicka, Dayana Agudo, Federico Davies, Daniela Weber, Daniel Stanton and Joe von Fischer for field and laboratory support. This work is a contribution of the Agua Salud Project, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and the Ministry of the Environment of Panama (MiAmbiente). Agua Salud is part of the Smithsonian Institution Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO?) and the native species plantations are part of the Smart Reforestation?, BiodiversiTREE and TreeDivNet programs. This research was supported by ForestGEO?, the Heising-Simons Foundation, HSBC, Stanley Motta, Small World Institute Fund, Smithsonian Institution's Competitive Grants for Science, Smithsonian Institution's Grand Challenges, the Hoch family, National Science Foundation (NSF grant EAR-1360391), National University of Singapore, STRI and Yale-NUS college. Princeton University, Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton Carbon Mitigation Initiative (with funding from BP), the STRI short term fellowship program, University of Leeds and a United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/M019497/1) provided support for SAB. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd",
year = "2018",
month = oct,
doi = "10.1111/ele.13129",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "21",
pages = "1486--1495",
journal = "Ecology Letters",
issn = "1461-023X",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "10",
}