Soil Nitrogen Influences Early Root Allocation of <em>Lespedeza cuneata</em>

Abstract

Invasive species such as Lespedeza cuneata are out-competing native prairie species and hindering prairie restoration efforts. L. cuneata has proved tolerant to natural forms of prairie management such as burning. Because fire reduces the amount of nitrogen in soil, the goal of our study was to test the effects of varying soil nitrogen levels on L. cuneata. We measured stem height and root, shoot, and total biomass of L. cuneata for three weeks using four different soil nitrogen treatments. Our results show no significant differences in the height or total biomass of L. cuneata caused by the different nitrogen levels. Our data did, however, show a significantly higher percentage of root biomass in the treatment with no added nitrogen. This suggests that L. cuneata may allocate a higher percentage of energy to root biomass in soils with lower nitrogen content.