Our objective was to understand the relationship between leaf stoichiometric characteristics
nutrients reabsorption efficiency and nitrogen (N) supply of Larix principis-rupprechtii. We selected 24-year-old Larix principis-rupprechtii plantation as study object
and set up a 3-level (0
8 and 15 g/(m2·a)) field experiment of N addition for 6 years to explore the change of mature leaves
leaves litter and soil nutrients contents. The results showed that the content of C in mature leaves was significantly different among years. The N addition significantly increased the C and N contents of mature leaves in 2016-2018
and decreased the P content in 2018
resulting in an increase of 20.20% in N/P ratio under light nitrogen addition and 34.43% under heavy nitrogen addition in 2018
and a peak of 20.50 in N/P ratio under heavy N addition in 2018
which indicated that N addition could drive the P nutrient limitation of the stand growth to a certain extent. The contents and stoichiometry of C
N and P in leaves litter were significantly different between years and different N addition. The N addition significantly increased the C content
C/P and N/P of leaves litter in 2016-2018
and significantly decreased the P content in 2016-2018. NRE and NRE/PRE decreased significantly under light N addition
while PRE increased significantly under N addition in 2016-2018. Correlation analysis showed that there were significant negative correlations between NRE and leaf N contents
and between PRE and leaf P contents
with the correlation coefficients of -0.860 and -0.772 respectively. The N addition significantly increased the content of soil available N
decreased soil pH (except 2016) and available P content. The results indicated that the growth of coniferous forests in North China was limited by P in different degrees due to N addition. It was speculated that the P nutrient limitation of the forests driven by N addition might be related to the initial soil nutrient status in this region
which provided reference for forest nutrient management under global climate change.
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