Responses of nutrient resorption to interannual precipitation variability and nitrogen addition in a pine plantation

Abstract Plant nutrient concentration and resorption play a major role in determining primary production and development of forests. Yet how plant nutrient concentration and resorption respond to altered interannual precipitation and how interannual precipitation variability mediates the responses of plant nutrient concentration and resorption to N addition remain uncertain. Here, we examined the responses of needle nutrient (N and P) concentrations of all aged classes, nutrient resorption efficiency, and proficiency to N addition (10 g N m −2 year −1 ) over a 4‐year period (from 2016 to 2019) that experienced high variability in precipitation in a Mongolian pine plantation in a semiarid region of northeast China. There were significant interannual variations in N and P concentrations in all aged needles and litters, N and P resorption efficiency, as well as soil inorganic N and available P concentrations in the control plots. Increased precipitation resulted in increased needle nutrient concentrations across the four consecutive years. However, needle nutrient concentrations did not covary with soil available nutrients. The responses of needle N resorption efficiency (NRE) to N addition differed across the four years, with N addition decreasing NRE in wet years, but not in dry years. Taken together, our results showed that foliar nutrient concentrations are sensitive to altered annual precipitation and that different interaction effects exist between N addition and sampling year for different nutrient variables. Such differential responses highlight the challenge of predicting effects of N addition on nutrient cycling over temporal scales.