Data from: Carboxylate release as a nutrient-acquisition strategy in mycorrhizal plant species in phosphorus-impoverished environments
Data files
May 27, 2025 version files 72.88 KB
-
carboxylate_release.xlsx
12.51 KB
-
Nutrient_in_leaves.xlsx
43.11 KB
-
README.md
4.83 KB
-
soil_data.xlsx
12.43 KB
Abstract
Plants acquire phosphorus (P) in different ways, including using specialised root structures such as cluster roots and mycorrhizal symbioses. However, mycorrhizal fungi are less effective at acquiring P from severely P-impoverished soils; yet many mycorrhizal plants thrive in such environments. Hence, we studied what nutrient-acquisition and -utilisation strategies allow these species to persist in these habitats. We chose 19 species (from mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal families) from P-impoverished environments in south-western Australia. Leaf element concentrations, including P, nitrogen (N), and manganese (Mn), as well as N and carbon (C) stable isotopes, were measured to explore the likely nutrient-acquisition and -utilisation strategies. Leaf Mn concentrations ([Mn]) were used as a proxy for carboxylates released by roots. Subsequently, glasshouse experiments were conducted to measure the root carboxylate release of seedlings of the selected species grown in nutrient solutions. Most mycorrhizal plant species with high leaf [Mn] showed a considerable release of root carboxylates, which mobilise both P and Mn in soil, just like most non-mycorrhizal Proteaceae with their specialised cluster roots do. The leaf [N] and [P] of arbuscular mycorrhizal species were higher than those of species with cluster roots and ectomycorrhizal species. Arbuscular mycorrhizal plant species exhibited a significantly more negative δ15N than other mycorrhizal species, indicating they accessed more inorganic N, while cluster-rooted non-mycorrhizal species had a positive δ15N, indicating they accessed more organic N. Myrtaceae exhibited a less negative δ13C value and higher leaf [Mn] at a drier location, indicating a higher water-use efficiency. Their higher leaf [Mn] suggests that photosynthesis was reduced less than leaf growth, providing a greater surplus of carbon, which was released as carboxylates from the roots.
Synthesis. Many mycorrhizal plant species very likely depended on root carboxylate release to acquire P at the P-impoverished study sites. Arbuscular mycorrhizal species exhibited a less conservative nutrient-utilisation strategy with higher leaf [P] than cluster-rooted non-mycorrhizal species and accessed more inorganic N. This supports the contention that the non-mycorrhizal species were not only more efficient at acquiring P but also at using it; their δ15N values indicated that they accessed less organic N.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.866t1g21z
Description of the data and file structure
File: Nutrient_in_leaves.xlsx
Description: The Nutrient in leaves data included all the total elements and isotopes that we measrued in the experiment, and these samples are from wild experiments. Each plant species at each site have at least five replicates. All the units, plant species and sampling site information are in the excel.
- Species - the plant species name that we collected at each sampling location
- Location - sampling location for each of the samples
- ID_number - Sampling number for our experiment
- Replicate - replicate for each of the sampling species
- Al mg/kg - Aluminium concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/kg
- Ca mg/g - calcium concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/g
- Co mg/kg - cobalt concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/kg
- Cu mg/kg - copper concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/kg
- Fe mg/kg - iron concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/kg
- K mg/g - potassium concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/g
- Mg mg/g - magnesium concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/g
- Mn mg/kg - manganese concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/kg
- Mo mg/kg - molybdenum concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/kg
- Na mg/g - sodium concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/g
- P mg/g - phosphorus concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/g
- S mg/g - sulfur concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/g
- Zn mg/kg - zink concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/kg
- δ15N [‰ AIR] - the 15N isotopic abundance
- δ13C [‰ VPDB] - the 13C isotopic abundance
- N/P [wt] - the nitrogen to phosphorus ratio based on weight
- N mg/kg - nitrogen concentration in leaf samples, with unit mg/g
File: carboxylate_release.xlsx
The carboxylate release data contain two sheets, sheet 1 is about the glasshouse experiment measuring carboxylate release of species that we sampled in the wild, sheet 2 is about the carboxylate release in two nutrient level of one species, Eucalyptus wandoo. All the units, plant species and sampling information are in the excel. At least five replicates of each species at each nutrient level are done.
Sheet 1: carboxylate of different plants
- Species - the plant species name that we used in the glasshouse experiment
- effective carboxylate nmol g(fresh weight)-1 s-1: double- and tri-carboxylate released from root, with unit nmol g(fresh weight)-1 s-1
- total carboxylate nmol g(fresh weight)-1 s-1: total carboxylate released from root, with unit nmol g(fresh weight)-1 s-1
Sheet 2: carboxylate of EW
- root part - sampling root part to measure carboxylate
- P level - phosphorus concentration in nutrient solution
- carboxylate nmol g(fresh weight)-1 s-1: total carboxylate released from root, with unit nmol g(fresh weight)-1 s-1
File: soil_data.xlsx
The soil data include all the elements that we measured in soils, as well as soil pH and EC. Each of the sampling site has at least five replicates of soil.
- Location - sampling location for each of the samples
- Replicate - replicate for each of the sampling locations
- Dry mass (g) - dry mass of soil samples that used to measure pH and EC
- pH - soil pH measured in water
- EC mS/cm - soil electrical conductance with unit of mS/cm
- Al mg/kg - Aluminium concentration in soils, with unit mg/kg
- Ca mg/g - calcium concentration in soils, with unit mg/g
- Co mg/kg - cobalt concentration in soils, with unit mg/kg
- Cu mg/kg - copper concentration in soils, with unit mg/kg
- Fe mg/kg - iron concentration in soils, with unit mg/kg
- K mg/g - potassium concentration in soils, with unit mg/g
- Mg mg/g - magnesium concentration in soils, with unit mg/g
- Mn mg/kg - manganese concentration in soils, with unit mg/kg
- Na mg/g - sodium concentration in soils, with unit mg/g
- P mg/g - phosphorus concentration in soils, with unit mg/g
- S mg/g - sulfur concentration in soils, with unit mg/g
- Zn mg/kg - zink concentration in soils, with unit mg/kg
- Resin P mg/kg - plant available soil P concentration in soils, with unit mg/kg
Code/software
We performed analyses in IBM SPSS Statistics 19 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), Origin 8.0 software (Originlab Co., Northampton, MA, USA), Excel, and R v4.2.0.
Levene and Shapiro-Wilk tests, one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s test, Welch T-test, Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test were used with IBM SPSS Statistics 19 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Bar charts were prepared using Origin 8.0 software (Originlab Co., Northampton, MA, USA).
R packages required for the analysis:
vegan
phytools
V.PhyloMaker2
ape
lme4
pheatmap.