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Data from: Interspecific differences in nitrogen form acquisition strategies contribute to species dominance

Guan, Ming12; Pan, Xiao-Cui1; Sun, Jian-Kun2; Chen, Ji-Xin2; Wei, Xiao-Lin2; Schmid, Bernhard3; Loreau, Michel4; Feng, Yu-Long52

Published May 22, 2025; Updated Oct 23, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdhw

Dryad was alerted to concerns regarding the original May 22, 2025 version files, and the appearance therein of several instances in which data were duplicated across entries; the dataset supports this published paper [1]. Following liaison between the author, Ecology, and Dryad, a revised and corrected dataset has now been published (Oct 23, 2026 version files). 

[1]: Guan, Ming, Xiao-Cui Pan, Jian-Kun Sun, Ji-Xin Chen, Xiao-Lin Wei, Bernhard Schmid, Michel Loreau, and Yu-Long Feng. 2025. “ Interspecific Differences in Nitrogen Form Acquisition Strategies Contribute to Species Dominance.” Ecology 106(6): e70137. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70137

Data files

May 22, 2025 version files 733.96 KB
Oct 23, 2026 version files 754.78 KB

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Abstract

Plant’s ability to use prevalent or less prevalent soil nitrogen (N) forms may affect their dominance within vegetation types, and these partitioning-driven changes in dominance may facilitate species co-existence. However, the mechanisms underlying these processes remain unclear, particularly given the strong influence of altitude on soil N forms, which in turn affects plant N acquisition strategy. In this study, we first determined the effects of preference and plasticity in N form uptake on partitioning of soil N forms and species dominance, and then assessed the relative importance of these two N form use strategies for 19 dominant and non-dominant species in three vegetation types along an altitudinal gradient on Changbai Mountain, northeast China. To achieve this, we measured dominance, the contents of different N forms in rhizosphere soils, their proportional contributions to leaf N, and N form uptake preference and plasticity for these 19 species. Our results show significant interspecific differences in the proportional contributions of different soil N forms to leaf N within all three vegetation types, providing a novel mechanism underlying niche differentiation among plants. Species dominance was positively associated with the proportional contributions of soil dissolved organic N (the most prevalent N form) and the main inorganic N form to leaf N, while negatively with that of the subordinate inorganic N. These associations were not altered by the altitude-driven changes in the absolute and proportional contents of different soil N forms, suggesting a potentially widespread phenomenon. Both preference and plasticity in N form uptake contributed to the proportional contributions of different N forms to leaf N, and therefore to species dominance and co-existence within vegetation types. Furthermore, N form preference was more critical for non-dominant relative to dominant species and at high relative to low altitude, while N form uptake plasticity was more important for dominant species and at low altitude. Our study provides robust evidence for the interspecific niche differentiation in N form uptake, contributing to species dominance and co-existence within vegetation types, and reveals the mechanisms (plasticity and preference) underlying the association between species dominance and the uptakes of different N forms.