Open Access

ARTICLE

Responses of C:N:P stoichiometry of plants from a Hulunbuir grassland to salt stress, drought and nitrogen addition

Wang XG¹, Wuyunna^1*, CA Busso², YT Song¹, FJ Zhang¹, GW Huo¹

1 College of Environment and Resources, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, China.
2 Departamento de Agronomía-CERZOS [(Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de la República Argentina (CONICET)], Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), San Andrés 800, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Pcia. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Address correspondence to: Dr. Wuyunna, e-mail:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2018, 87(all), 123-132. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2018.87.123

Abstract

Chemical elements, such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), are major limiting nutrients in arid and semiarid grasslands and their stoichiometry (C:N:P) is a very important ratio to determine. In addition, it is critical to understand how plant stoichiometry responds to multiple environmental factors at the species level. In this study, we conducted a greenhouse experiment to investigate the effects of salt stress (4 g NaCl/kg soil), drought (35% of the soil water holding capacity) and N addition (10 g N/m²), as well as their interactions, on C, N and P concentrations and C:N:P ratios in two dominant species (Allium polyrhizum and Stipa krylovii) from the Hulunbuir grassland of Inner Mongolia. Allium polyrhizum had higher N and P concentrations, and lower C:N and C:P ratios than Stipa krylovii. Salt stress significantly decreased plant C concentration, while drought had no significant effects on all the study variables of the two plant species. Nitrogen addition significantly increased plant N concentrations, and decreased C:N and C:P ratios. There were significant interactions between salt stress and species identity in affecting plant C and N concentrations as well as C:N and N:P ratios. This study could further enrich the knowledge of plant stoichiometry in response to multiple environmental stresses.

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Keywords

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