Nutrient resorption in two co existing Nothofagus species in southern Patagonia

BAHAMONDE H.; FERNANDEZ V.; MATTENET F.; PERI P.L.

Congreso; XVIII International Plant Nutrition Colloquium; 2017

The nutrient resorption understood as the ?movement? of nutrients from leaves prior to abscission towards other tissues or internal stores has been indicated as a key component of nutrient conservation in the world?s forests. The study sites represented contrasting environmental conditions with altitude (A), mean annual precipitation (MAP) and mean annual temperature (MAT) as main variables, which resulted in different dominant height of mature trees (H) (as indicator of productivity).Nutrient resorption did not vary between species for the same site or between sites for the same species, averaging 58, 37 and 53 % for N, P and K, respectively. Contrasting environmental conditions did not have an marked effect on nutrient resorption of the two evaluated Nothofagus species. More investigation expanding the spatial and temporal scale is needed to evaluate the resorption efficiency of these forests.