Nitrogen fixation and phosphatase activity of 97 nitrogen-fixing and non-fixing trees in Panama
Batterman, S.A., Hall, J.S., Turner, B., Hedin, L.O., LaHaela Walter, J.K., Sheldon, P., van Breugel, M. (2018). Nitrogen fixation and phosphatase activity of 97 nitrogen-fixing and non-fixing trees in Panama. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/3578bae2-4b88-4b2e-93e1-6965dfe1348c
This data includes information about nitrogen fixation, phosphatase activity, plant nitrogen and phosphorus demand and soil nitrogen and phosphorus availability of nitrogen-fixing and non-fixing trees from seven species grown in an experimental plantation at the Agua Salud Native Species Plantation, El Giral, Panama (9°12'50.15''N, 79°43'26''W). Data were collected by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Princeton University and were analysed by the University of Leeds. This work was funded by the following organisations: Heising-Simons Foundation, Hoch Family, ForestGEO®, HSBC, Stanley Motta, Small World Institute Fund, Smithsonian Institution's Competitive Grants for Science, Smithsonian Institution's Grand Challenges, National Science Foundation (award reference: EAR-1360391), National University of Singapore, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Yale-NUS college, Princeton University, Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton Carbon Mitigation Initiative, University of Leeds and NERC (award reference: NE/M019497/1)
The dataset includes the original values for all variables except nitrogen fixation and phosphatase activity, which represent the mean across replicates within a tree (three replicates for fixation rate, five replicates for phosphatase activity). Data have not been transformed and no outliers were removed. Nitrogen fixation was measured using three approaches: (1) To measure nodule biomass, six 5.5 cm diameter soil cores were taken from within two meters of the base of the tree and examined for root nodules in the lab. (2) To measure rates of fixation within the nodules of the majority of trees, nodules were excavated from fine roots at the base of each tree and acetylene reduction assay was conducted immediately. (3) To obtain the conversion of acetylene reduced to nitrogen fixed, nodules were excavated from fine roots at the base of a subset of trees and were incubated with labeled 15N and later analysed with isotope ratio mass spectrometry to determine the nitrogen fixed relative to non-enriched control nodules for each tree. Data were expressed as nodule biomass, nitrogen fixation rate converted to grams nitrogen fixed per area of rooting zone of the focal tree.
copyright University of Leeds copyright Princeton University copyright Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
NERC Environmental Information Data Centre
Yale-NUS College, National University of Singapore
Batterman, S.A., Hall, J.S., Turner, B., Hedin, L.O., LaHaela Walter, J.K, Sheldon, P. and van Breugel, M. (2018). Phosphatase activity and nitrogen fixation reflect species differences, not nutrient trading or nutrient balance, across tropical rainforest trees. Ecology Letters.
Facilitating the tropical forest carbon sink: The evolution and function of symbiotic N2 fixation