Leaf nitrogen and phosphorus are more coupled in legumes than in non-legumes, globally

Tiancai Zhou, Gusang Qunzong, Jian Sun

doi:10.1093/jpe/rtaf176

Journal of Plant Ecology >

0 1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtaf176

Research Article

Leaf nitrogen and phosphorus are more coupled in legumes than in non-legumes, globally

Expand

¹ Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Ministry of Education, Lhasa 850011, China

² State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

^* Corresponding to: GUSANG Qunzong: gusang@utibet.edu.cn ；Jian Sun: sunjian@itpcas.ac.c

Received date: 2025-05-30

Accepted date: 2025-09-30

Online published: 2025-10-21

Supported by

This work was supported by the Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Ministry of Education (KLBE2025009), the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology of Xizang Plateau, Ministry of Education (XZAJYBSYS-202501), the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42301071), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2023M743633).

Fold

Abstract

Despite nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) being biologically coupled and controlling many biochemical reactions, few studies have examined the N: P patterns and controls of legumes and non-legumes at a global scale. Herein, we explored how the ratio of N and P in legumes and non-legumes responds to environmental factors, globally. Our results indicated that legumes exhibit stronger N-P coupling (R² = 0.39, P < 0.0001) in warm-humid environments (mean precipitation: 988.94 mm, temperature: 12.63 °C), and the N:P is negatively affected by the soil total P (scored at = –0.25). In contrast, non-legumes are more flexible in N and P (R² = 0.23, P < 0.0001) in semihumid regions (precipitation = 785.01 mm, temperature = 8.85 ℃), where soil total N (scored at = –0.22) and biodiversity (scored at = 0.16) emerge as dominant drivers for the N:P. Although legumes are expected to be more soil P-limited, our findings reveal that the leaf N and P are more coupled in legumes than in non-legumes, which offers a unique perspective on resource utilization and survival strategies in different plant functions.

Key words： Nitrogen and phosphorus; Legumes and non-legumes; Soil nutrients; Coupling; Global

Cite this article

Tiancai Zhou, Gusang Qunzong, Jian Sun . Leaf nitrogen and phosphorus are more coupled in legumes than in non-legumes, globally[J]. Journal of Plant Ecology, 0 : 1 . DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtaf176

Options

Outlines

模态框（Modal）标题

Abstract

Cite this article