TY - JOUR
T1 - Testing the growth rate hypothesis in vascular plants with above- and below-ground biomass
AU - Yu, Qiang
AU - Wu, Honghui
AU - He, Nianpeng
AU - Lü, Xiaotao
AU - Wang, Zhiping
AU - Elser, James J.
AU - Wu, Jianguo
AU - Han, Xingguo
PY - 2012/3/13
Y1 - 2012/3/13
N2 - The growth rate hypothesis (GRH) proposes that higher growth rate (the rate of change in biomass per unit biomass, μ) is associated with higher P concentration and lower C:P and N:P ratios. However, the applicability of the GRH to vascular plants is not well-studied and few studies have been done on belowground biomass. Here we showed that, for aboveground, belowground and total biomass of three study species, μ was positively correlated with N:C under N limitation and positively correlated with P:C under P limitation. However, the N:P ratio was a unimodal function of μ, increasing for small values of μ, reaching a maximum, and then decreasing. The range of variations in μ was positively correlated with variation in C:N:P stoichiometry. Furthermore, μ and C:N:P ranges for aboveground biomass were negatively correlated with those for belowground. Our results confirm the well-known association of growth rate with tissue concentration of the limiting nutrient and provide empirical support for recent theoretical formulations.
AB - The growth rate hypothesis (GRH) proposes that higher growth rate (the rate of change in biomass per unit biomass, μ) is associated with higher P concentration and lower C:P and N:P ratios. However, the applicability of the GRH to vascular plants is not well-studied and few studies have been done on belowground biomass. Here we showed that, for aboveground, belowground and total biomass of three study species, μ was positively correlated with N:C under N limitation and positively correlated with P:C under P limitation. However, the N:P ratio was a unimodal function of μ, increasing for small values of μ, reaching a maximum, and then decreasing. The range of variations in μ was positively correlated with variation in C:N:P stoichiometry. Furthermore, μ and C:N:P ranges for aboveground biomass were negatively correlated with those for belowground. Our results confirm the well-known association of growth rate with tissue concentration of the limiting nutrient and provide empirical support for recent theoretical formulations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863274373&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0032162
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0032162
M3 - Article
C2 - 22427823
AN - SCOPUS:84863274373
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 7
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 3
M1 - e32162
ER -