IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v437y2005i7058d10.1038_nature03950.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Endangered plants persist under phosphorus limitation

Author

Listed:
  • Martin J. Wassen

    (Utrecht University)

  • Harry Olde Venterink

    (Geobotanical Institute ETH)

  • Elena D. Lapshina

    (State University of Tomsk
    Yugra State University)

  • Franziska Tanneberger

    (Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University)

Abstract

Biodiversity under threat The assumption that nitrogen enrichment caused by human activities is threatening biodiversity in Europe and North America may be false. A survey of herbaceous terrestrial ecosystems covering a gradient of decreasing nitrogen deposition from Western Europe to Siberia suggests that phosphorus, not nitrogen, is often the key element. In the 274 sites examined, many more endangered plant species persist under phosphorus-limited than nitrogen-limited conditions, so extra phosphorus is the more likely to cause species loss. Conservation policies biased towards reducing nitrogen enrichment are unlikely to succeed; rather, attention should focus on reducing phosphorus availability. On the cover, Great Vasyugan in Western Siberia, a peatland harbouring many plant species under P-limited conditions, some of which are shown on the cover. Main image: Wladimir Bleuten; inserts: Franziska Tanneberger.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin J. Wassen & Harry Olde Venterink & Elena D. Lapshina & Franziska Tanneberger, 2005. "Endangered plants persist under phosphorus limitation," Nature, Nature, vol. 437(7058), pages 547-550, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:437:y:2005:i:7058:d:10.1038_nature03950
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03950
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03950
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature03950?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Le, Quang Bao & Nkonya, Ephraim & Mirzabaev, Alisher, 2014. "Biomass Productivity-Based Mapping of Global Land Degradation Hotspots," Discussion Papers 177961, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    2. Agata Klimkowska & Klara Goldstein & Tomasz Wyszomirski & Łukasz Kozub & Mateusz Wilk & Camiel Aggenbach & Jan P Bakker & Heinrich Belting & Boudewijn Beltman & Volker Blüml & Yzaak De Vries & Beate G, 2019. "Are we restoring functional fens? – The outcomes of restoration projects in fens re-analysed with plant functional traits," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, April.
    3. Nkonya, Ephraim & von Braun, Joachim & Mirzabaev, Alisher & Le, Quang Bao & Kwon, Ho Young & Kirui, Oliver K., 2013. "Economics of Land Degradation Initiative: Methods and Approach for Global and National Assessments," Discussion Papers 158663, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    4. Ting-Shuai Shi & Scott L. Collins & Kailiang Yu & Josep Peñuelas & Jordi Sardans & Hailing Li & Jian-Sheng Ye, 2024. "A global meta-analysis on the effects of organic and inorganic fertilization on grasslands and croplands," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Shiekh Marifatul Haq & Umer Yaqoob & Eduardo Soares Calixto & Manoj Kumar & Inayat Ur Rahman & Abeer Hashem & Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah & Maha Abdullah Alakeel & Abdulaziz A. Alqarawi & Mohnad Abdalla &, 2021. "Long-Term Impact of Transhumance Pastoralism and Associated Disturbances in High-Altitude Forests of Indian Western Himalaya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-20, November.
    6. Tim Schnoor & Hans Henrik Bruun & Pål Axel Olsson, 2015. "Soil Disturbance as a Grassland Restoration Measure—Effects on Plant Species Composition and Plant Functional Traits," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:437:y:2005:i:7058:d:10.1038_nature03950. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.