Trade-offs among fine-root phosphorus-acquisition strategies of 15 tropical woody species

  Aims  Plant roots show various functional strategies in soil phosphorus (P) acquisition. Under limited soil phosphatase activity, P deficiency is the main concern, and roots either invest carbon (C) to produce higher levels of phosphatase or establish more symbioses with mycorrhizal fungi. However, these strategies and their interactions are not clear. Furthermore, few studies have investigated trade-offs of functional traits in woody species associated with different types of mycorrhizal partners.

  Methods  Here we examined the abilities to release acid phosphatase (AP) and the colonization ratio by arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal fungi for fine roots of 15 woody species growing in a tropical common garden in Xishuangbanna, China. We also measured acid phosphatase activities of bulk soils under the canopy of target trees.

  Results  Soil and root AP activities exhibited a positive correlation, indicating that roots actively produced AP to acquire P even bulk soil AP was increasing. We found a significantly negative correlation (P ​= ​0.02) between mycorrhizal colonization ratio and root-released AP activity across target species, reflecting a trade-off between these two P acquisition strategies.

  Conclusions  Our findings suggest a trade-off of resource allocation between these two strategies at both species and individual levels, and provide information on the overall mechanism of P acquisition by fine roots that they either 'do it by themselves' or 'rely on mycorrhizal partners'. These two strategies might be integrated into the collaboration gradient of the root economics space.