DeterminantsoftheNcontentof.PDF

/scientificreports OPEN Determinants of the N content of Quercus wutaishanica leaves in the Loess Plateau: a structural equation Received: 28 September 2015 modeling approach accepted: 09 May 2016 Published: 27 May 2016 1,2 1,2 3 1,2 1,2 Kaixiong Xing , Muyi Kang , Han Y. H. Chen , Mingfei Zhao , Yuhang Wang , 1,2 4 5 1,2 Guoyi Wang , Chen Chen , Yang Liu Xiaobin Dong Most terrestrial ecosystems are nitrogen (N)-limited. The elucidation of the multivariate relationships among environmental drivers, leaf morphological traits, and foliar N of dominant species which are critical to the functioning of forests remains a critical challenge for ecologists. We sampled leaves of Quercus wutaishanica across a broad natural gradient in the Loess Plateau, China, and employed structural equation modelling to evaluate the causal pathways and the relative importance of drivers of the foliar N per unit area (Narea) and per unit mass (Nmass). We found that (1) Nmass and Narea were primarily affected by leaf morphological traits instead of environmental variables and that leaf morphological traits accounted for most of their variations; (2) the total soil potassium and phosphorus and mean annual precipitation had