Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, 133 Bessey Hall, Ames, IA 50010, USA.
Ecol Lett. 2011 Sep;14(9):852-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01651.x. Epub 2011 Jul 12.
Synergistic interactions between multiple limiting resources are common, highlighting the importance of co-limitation as a constraint on primary production. Our concept of resource limitation has shifted over the past two decades from an earlier paradigm of single-resource limitation towards concepts of co-limitation by multiple resources, which are predicted by various theories. Herein, we summarise multiple-resource limitation responses in plant communities using a dataset of 641 studies that applied factorial addition of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in freshwater, marine and terrestrial systems. We found that more than half of the studies displayed some type of synergistic response to N and P addition. We found support for strict definitions of co-limitation in 28% of the studies: i.e. community biomass responded to only combined N and P addition, or to both N and P when added separately. Our results highlight the importance of interactions between N and P in regulating primary producer community biomass and point to the need for future studies that address the multiple mechanisms that could lead to different types of co-limitation.
多种限制资源之间的协同相互作用很常见，这凸显了共同限制作为初级生产约束的重要性。在过去的二十年中，我们对资源限制的概念已经从早期的单一资源限制范式转变为多种资源共同限制的概念，这些概念是由各种理论预测的。在这里，我们使用了一个包含 641 项研究的数据集，这些研究在淡水、海洋和陆地系统中通过添加氮（N）和磷（P）的因子来总结植物群落的多种资源限制反应。我们发现，超过一半的研究显示出对 N 和 P 添加的某种协同响应。我们在 28%的研究中支持严格的共同限制定义：即群落生物量仅对 N 和 P 的联合添加有响应，或者当单独添加 N 和 P 时也有响应。我们的结果强调了 N 和 P 之间相互作用在调节初级生产者群落生物量方面的重要性，并指出需要未来的研究来解决可能导致不同类型共同限制的多种机制。
