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Warming drives sustained plant phosphorus demand in a humid tropical forest
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  • Zhiyang Lie,
  • Wenjuan Huang,
  • kadowaki Kohmei,
  • Guoyi Zhou,
  • Junhua Yan,
  • Josep Penuelas,
  • Jordi Sardans,
  • David T. Tissue,
  • Yuelin Li,
  • Shizhong Liu,
  • Guowei Chu,
  • Juxiu Liu
Zhiyang Lie
South China Botanical Garden

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Wenjuan Huang
Iowa State University
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kadowaki Kohmei
Kyoto University
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Guoyi Zhou
South China Botanical Garden
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Junhua Yan
South China Botanical Garden
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Josep Penuelas
CSIC-CREAF
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Jordi Sardans
CREAF
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David T. Tissue
Western Sydney University
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Yuelin Li
South China Botanical Garden
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Shizhong Liu
South China Botanical Garden
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Guowei Chu
South China Botanical Garden
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Juxiu Liu
South China Botanical Garden
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Abstract

Phosphorus (P) is often one of the most limiting nutrients in highly weathered soils of humid tropical forests, which may regulate the responses of carbon (C) feedback to climate warming. Based on a 7-year continuous field warming experiment conducted by translocating microcosm forest ecosystems from a high-elevation site to low-elevation sites, we detected changes in the ecosystem P cycle in response to warming. We report that warming drives sustained plant P demand by increasing P uptake and thus decreasing foliar N:P. This increased plant P content is supplied by multiple processes including enhanced plant P resorption, soil P mineralization and dissolution without changing litter P mineralization and leachate P. These findings suggest that warming may alleviate initial P deficiency and/or limitation of plant growth and contribute to sustaining plant C fixation in these tropical forests.
Jul 2022Published in Global Change Biology volume 28 issue 13 on pages 4085-4096. 10.1111/gcb.16194