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Varying the ratio of 15N-labelled ammonium and nitrate-N supplied to creeping bent: effects on nitrogen absorption and assimilation, and plant growth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1999

J. S. BAILEY
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland, Agricultural and Environmental Science Division, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK (tel +44 1232 255336; fax +44 1232 662007; e-mail [email protected])
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Abstract

The relative rates of ammonium and nitrate-N uptake and assimilation by creeping bent (Agrostis stolonifera), were investigated for plants grown in soil and supplied with three different ratios of ammonium and nitrate-N. Following two preliminary defoliations, plants were supplied with the equivalent of 150 kg N ha−1, given as 15N-(differentially) labelled NH4+ and NO3-N in three different ratios (20:80, 50:50 and 80:20), followed by sequential destructive harvests of shoots and roots at four points during a 35-d regrowth period. Maximum use of labelled nitrogen and ‘exhaustion’ of soil mineral nitrogen reserves occurred much earlier when plants were supplied with half or more of their nitrogen as ammonium, than occurred when they were supplied predominately with nitrate-N. The lack of consistency in the patterns of ammonium and nitrate-N absorption, however, implied that the plants had no specific preference for either nitrogen form. Supplying plants with different combinations of ammonium and nitrate produced distinctive differences in plant morphology. In the high nitrate treatment, plants preferentially partitioned resources into shoot and stolon formation, whereas in the high ammonium treatment, resources were preferentially partitioned into root production. These changes in plant morphology might be adaptations to aid species survival in environments associated with a predominance of either nitrogen form.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Trustees of the New Phytologist 1999

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