TY - JOUR

T1 - Foliar nitrogen metabolism of adult Douglas-fir trees is affected by soil water availability and varies little among provenances

AU - Du, Baoguo

AU - Kreuzwieser, Jürgen

AU - Dannenmann, Michael

AU - Junker, Laura Verena

AU - Kleiber, Anita

AU - Hess, Moritz

AU - Jansen, Kirstin

AU - Eiblmeier, Monika

AU - Gessler, Arthur

AU - Kohnle, Ulrich

AU - Ensminger, Ingo

AU - Rennenberg, Heinz

AU - Wildhagen, Henning

N1 - This work was financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (www.dfg. de; grants KR 2010/4-1 to JK, EN829/5-1 to IE and GE1090/7-1 to AG), the Forest Research Institute of the German Federal State Baden-Württemberg (FVA, to IE, UK, HW), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF (31003A_159866 to AG). BD obtained funding from the China Scholarship Council, the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg of Germany and the University of Freiburg. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

PY - 2018/3/22

Y1 - 2018/3/22

N2 - The coniferous forest tree Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is native to the pacific North America, and is increasingly planted in temperate regions worldwide. Nitrogen (N) metabolism is of great importance for growth, resistance and resilience of trees. In the present study, foliar N metabolism of adult trees of three coastal and one interior provenance of Douglas-fir grown at two common gardens in southwestern Germany (Wiesloch, W; Schluchsee, S) were characterized in two subsequent years. Both the native North American habitats of the seed sources and the common garden sites in Germany differ in climate conditions. Total and mineral soil N as well as soil water content were higher in S compared to W. We hypothesized that i) provenances differ constitutively in N pool sizes and composition, ii) N pools are affected by environmental conditions, and iii) that effects of environmental factors on N pools differ among interior and coastal provenances. Soil water content strongly affected the concentrations of total N, soluble protein, total amino acids (TAA), arginine and glutamate. Foliar concentrations of total N, soluble protein, structural N and TAA of trees grown at W were much higher than in trees at S. Provenance effects were small but significant for total N and soluble protein content (interior provenance showed lowest concentrations), as well as arginine, asparagine and glutamate. Our data suggest that needle N status of adult Douglas-fir is independent from soil N availability and that low soil water availability induces a re-allocation of N from structural N to metabolic N pools. Small provenance effects on N pools suggest that local adaptation of Douglas-fir is not dominated by N conditions at the native habitats.

AB - The coniferous forest tree Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is native to the pacific North America, and is increasingly planted in temperate regions worldwide. Nitrogen (N) metabolism is of great importance for growth, resistance and resilience of trees. In the present study, foliar N metabolism of adult trees of three coastal and one interior provenance of Douglas-fir grown at two common gardens in southwestern Germany (Wiesloch, W; Schluchsee, S) were characterized in two subsequent years. Both the native North American habitats of the seed sources and the common garden sites in Germany differ in climate conditions. Total and mineral soil N as well as soil water content were higher in S compared to W. We hypothesized that i) provenances differ constitutively in N pool sizes and composition, ii) N pools are affected by environmental conditions, and iii) that effects of environmental factors on N pools differ among interior and coastal provenances. Soil water content strongly affected the concentrations of total N, soluble protein, total amino acids (TAA), arginine and glutamate. Foliar concentrations of total N, soluble protein, structural N and TAA of trees grown at W were much higher than in trees at S. Provenance effects were small but significant for total N and soluble protein content (interior provenance showed lowest concentrations), as well as arginine, asparagine and glutamate. Our data suggest that needle N status of adult Douglas-fir is independent from soil N availability and that low soil water availability induces a re-allocation of N from structural N to metabolic N pools. Small provenance effects on N pools suggest that local adaptation of Douglas-fir is not dominated by N conditions at the native habitats.

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044290201&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/6f2d75ce-f2ef-38b6-b786-c8dc0a233a7f/

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0194684

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0194684

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 29566035

AN - SCOPUS:85044290201

VL - 13

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 3

M1 - e0194684

ER -