Environmental and evolutionary constraints on plant nutrient resorption
I seek to understand the physiological, environmental, and evolutionary controls on internal plant nutrient recycling. Nutrient resorption and storage in perennial species conserves plant nutrient pools, decreasing plant reliance on current external nutrient supply and buffering the impact of annual variation in nutrient availability. At the whole-plant level, more complete nutrient resorption can increase plant fitness, a major driver of population dynamics. In contrast, complete resorption can negatively impact ecosystem processes, slowing decomposition and influencing site fertility and ultimately plant community composition. Despite the major role that nutrient resorption and storage may play in population, community, and ecosystem processes, there are significant gaps in our knowledge, such as: What is the relative importance of phylogeny versus environment on nutrient resorption? How do environmental factors influence realized resorption? Do other nutrient conservation or allocation mechanisms compensate in years of poor resorption? Using multi-year field sampling, manipulative experiments, and meta-analysis of published works, my ultimate goal is to gain a better understanding of how environmental variation, storage, and recycling drives community and ecosystem processes. By understanding plant physiological responses to these changes, we can predict feedbacks on community dynamics and ecosystem processes.
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