Temperature drives the coordination between aboveground nutrient conservation and belowground nutrient acquisition in alpine coniferous forests

Aboveground nutrient conservation via resorption processes and belowground nutrient acquisition from soils are two important mechanisms for plants to maintain nutrition and ecosystem functions. However, the mechanism by which plants coordinate these two nutrient strategies, especially for ectomycorrhizal (ECM)-dominated conifers in alpine forests, remains unclear.
We investigated the relationships between aboveground nutrient conservation and belowground nutrient acquisition and their environmental drivers by measuring leaf nutrient (i.e., nitrogen [N] and phosphorous [P]) resorption efficiency, resource foraging- and uptake-related root morphological (root diameter [RD], specific root length [SRL]/area [SRA]) and physiological (root tissue density [RTD], root N and P concentration) traits, mycorrhizal colonization rate (MCR), rhizosphere effect on soil N and P cycling, and environmental factors of 40 ECM coniferous populations on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China.
Our results show tha...