Quantifying remobilization of pre-existing nitrogen from cuttings to new growth of woody plants using ¹⁵N at natural abundance

BACKGROUND: For measurements of nitrogen isotope composition at natural abundance, carry-over of pre-existing nitrogen remobilized to new plant growth can cause deviation of measured isotope composition (δ¹⁵N) from the δ¹⁵Nof newly acquired nitrogen. To account for this problem, a two-step approach...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant methods 2013-07, Vol.9 (1), p.27-27
Main Authors: Kalcsits, Lee A, Guy, Robert D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ammonium nitrogen
biomass
Chemical properties
Growth
Growth (Plants)
Isotope separation
Isotopes
Measurement
Methodology
Methods
nitrate nitrogen
Nitrogen
plant growth
Plants
Populus balsamifera
Woody plants
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Summary:BACKGROUND: For measurements of nitrogen isotope composition at natural abundance, carry-over of pre-existing nitrogen remobilized to new plant growth can cause deviation of measured isotope composition (δ¹⁵N) from the δ¹⁵Nof newly acquired nitrogen. To account for this problem, a two-step approach was proposed to quantify and correct for remobilized nitrogen from vegetative cuttings of Populus balsamifera L. grown with either nitrate (δ¹⁵N = 58.5‰) or ammonium (δ¹⁵N = −0.96‰). First, the fraction of carry-over nitrogen remaining in the cutting was estimated by isotope mass balance. Then measured δ¹⁵N values were adjusted for the fraction of pre-existing nitrogen remobilized to the plant. RESULTS: Mean plant δ¹⁵N prior to correction was 49‰ and −5.8‰ under nitrate and ammonium, respectively. Plant δ¹⁵N was non-linearly correlated to biomass (r² = 0.331 and 0.249 for nitrate and ammonium, respectively; P 
ISSN:1746-4811
1746-4811
DOI:10.1186/1746-4811-9-27