Nitrogen-limited growth in plants from different successional stages.

Species were ranked from those that attained the greatest biomass as seedlings at low N levels to those that attained the least; Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Achillea millefolium, Chenopodium album, Agropyron repens, Agrostis scabra, Poa pratensis, Sorghastrum nutans, Schizachyrium scoparium, Liatris aspera. There was a highly significant tendency for early successional species to grow more rapidly at low-N levels and to acquire more N per plant from N-poor soils than late successional species, but late successional species did not grow more rapidly at high nitrogen levels than early successional species. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that early successional species are dominant following old field abandonment at Cedar Creek, Minnesota, because of their ability to compete for soil N. -from Author