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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #153188
Title: INTERACTION OF RAINFALL, NUTRIENTS AND TOPOGRAPHY LIMITS GROWTH OF NATIVE AND INTRODUCED PLANT SPECIES IN AN AUSTRALIAN SEMIARID GRASSLAND

Author
item Tartowski, Sandy

Submitted to: International Rangeland Congress
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/26/2003
Publication Date: 7/26/2003
Citation: TARTOWSKI, S.L. INTERACTION OF RAINFALL, NUTRIENTS AND TOPOGRAPHY LIMITS GROWTH OF NATIVE AND INTRODUCED PLANT SPECIES IN AN AUSTRALIAN SEMIARID GRASSLAND. PROCEEDINGS OF THE VIITH INTERNATIONAL RANGELAND CONGRESS. 2003. P. 125-128.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Human activities have significantly increased the deposition of reactive nitrogen (N) and projections indicate that N deposition will continue to increase, but the effect of increased N deposition on arid ecosystems is difficult to predict (Asner et al. 2001). In arid environments, when water is available a pulse of plant growth occurs and nutrients may become limiting (Whitford 1986). Nitrogen is considered the main limiting nutrient in the arid soils of recently deglaciated North America (West & Skujins 1978), but simultaneous deficiencies of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur occur in older soils from central Australia (Friedel, Cellier & Nicolson 1981) and in semiarid pasture in New South Wales, Australia (Tupper 1978), while both N and P are limiting in tallgrass veld of South Africa (Le Roux & Mentis 1986). In N-limited ecosystems, the addition of N typically increases primary production and favors fast-growing early successional species (Chapin et al. 1986). Many invasive species share these weedy characteristics and respond strongly to fertilization (Huenneke et al. 1990). Australian ecosystems, with notoriously infertile soils, and native plants with a long evolutionary history of severe water and nutrient limitation, combined with light and intermittent grazing, might be particularly vulnerable to facilitation of introduced species by increased N deposition. In this study, the effects of increased N deposition on a semiarid Australian ecosystem were investigated by comparing the response of native and introduced species to additions of N and other nutrients.