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Abstract:
Photosynthesis/nutrient relationships of proximally growing forest and savanna trees were determined
in an ecotonal region of Cameroon (Africa). Although
area-based foliar N concentrations were typically lower
for savanna trees, there was no difference in photosynthetic
rates between the two vegetation formation types.
Opposite to N, area-based P concentrations were—on average—
slightly lower for forest trees; a dependency of photosynthetic
characteristics on foliar P was only evident for
savanna trees. Thus savanna trees use N more efficiently than their forest counterparts, but only in the presence of relatively high foliar P. Along with some other recent studies,
these results suggest that both N and P are important
modulators of woody tropical plant photosynthetic capacities,
influencing photosynthetic metabolism in different
ways that are also biome specific. Attempts to find simple
unifying equations to describe woody tropical vegetation
photosynthesis-nutrient relationships are likely to meet
with failure, with ecophysiological distinctions between forest and savanna requiring acknowledgement.
