Abstract
Litters carry out the cycling and storage of multiple nutrients and
heavy metals, and thus litter mineral elements sharp many key ecosystem
processes. Understanding the global geographic patterns of litter
elements is needed for plant nutrition and biogeochemical models, but
such knowledge is largely limited to N and P. By compiling data on 12
mineral elements in leaf litter from 1, 666 species, we show that
elements differed largely in their retranslocation efficiencies and
among plant functional types. Elements in leaf litter responded to
latitude in a similar manor as those in green leaves, except for N.
Disproportionate resorption acted as a negative feedback and caused leaf
litter N to decline with latitude, a trend contrary to green leaf N;
litter P increased with latitude as predicted by the Plant Physiological
Hypotheses. The rest elements generally declined with latitude,
supporting the Temperature-Biogeochemistry Hypotheses. Soil nutrients
likely had indirect effects on these latitudinal patterns via controls
on green leaves, while woody plant distribution per se had modest
effects. Overall, we suggest that fundamental constraints on plant
nutrient conservation and usage strategies lead to predictable
global-scale patterns in multiple litter elements.