ArticleScience advances2018
Phosphorus, not nitrogen, limits plants and microbial primary producers following glacial retreat.
Article in Science advances, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- 16S rRNA amplicon metabarcoding dataset from a retreating glacier forefield in the high tropical andes.Data in brief · 2026Article
- Impacts of non-native invertebrates and plants on polar soil systems.npj biodiversity · 2026Review
- Current and projected effects of climate change in cryosphere microbial ecosystems.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Article
- Increased microbial carbon use efficiency upon abrupt permafrost thaw.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The Effects of Soil Cover Thickness on Leaf Functional Traits of Vine Plants in Mining Areas Depend on Soil Enzyme Activities and Nutrient Cycling.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Determinism and stochasticity drive microbial community assembly and microbial interactions in calcareous glacier forefields.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Global patterns of nutrient limitation in soil microorganisms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Characteristics of leaf nutrient resorption efficiency in Tibetan alpine permafrost ecosystems.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Phosphorus starvation induces the synthesis of novel lipid class diacylglyceryl glucuronide and diacylglyceryl-N,N,N-trimethylhomoserine in two species of cold-adapted microalgae Raphidonema (Chlorophyta).The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2025Article
- Wild Andean camelids promote rapid ecosystem development after glacier retreat.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Principal role of fungi in soil carbon stabilization during early pedogenesis in the high Arctic.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Dynamic Changes of Soil Microbial Communities During the Afforestation of Pinus Armandii in a Karst Region of Southwest China.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
- Mineral substrate quality determines the initial soil microbial development in front of the Nordenskiöldbreen, Svalbard.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2023Article
- Ecosystem engineers in the extreme: The modest impact of marmots on vegetation cover and plant nitrogen and phosphorus content in a cold, extremely arid mountain environment.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species-specific implications for upward range expansions.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Accuracy of mutual predictions of plant and microbial communities vary along a successional gradient in an alpine glacier forefield.Frontiers in plant science · 2022Article
- Marine Vertebrates Impact the Bacterial Community Composition and Food Webs of Antarctic Microbial Mats.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Ecosystem Birth Near Melting Glaciers: A Review on the Pioneer Role of Ground-Dwelling Arthropods.Insects · 2020Review
- Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Current models of ecosystem development hold that low nitrogen availability limits the earliest stages of primary succession, but these models were developed from studies conducted in areas with temperate or wet climates. Global warming is now causing rapid glacial retreat even in inland areas with cold, dry climates, areas where ecological succession has not been adequately studied. We combine field and microcosm studies of both plant and microbial primary producers and show that phosphorus, not nitrogen, is the nutrient most limiting to the earliest stages of primary succession along glacial chronosequences in the Central Andes and central Alaska. We also show that phosphorus addition greatly accelerates the rate of succession for plants and for microbial phototrophs, even at the most extreme deglaciating site at over 5000 meters above sea level in the Andes of arid southern Peru. These results challenge the idea that nitrogen availability and a severe climate limit the rate of plant and microbial succession in cold-arid regions and will inform conservation efforts to mitigate the effects of global change on these fragile and threatened ecosystems.
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