Soil Fertility Gradient

The removal of nutrients from senescing tissues, nutrient resorption, is a key strategy for conserving nutrients in plants. However, our understanding of what drives patterns of nutrient resorption in tropical trees is limited. We examined the effects of nutrient sources (stand‐level and tree‐level soil fertility) and sinks (reproductive effort) on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) resorption. We evaluated resorption efficiency (percentage of original nutrients removed during senescence) and resorption proficiency (indicated by senesced‐leaf nutrient concentrations) in a symbiotic N‐fixing tree species, Pentaclethra macroloba, common to tropical forests in Costa Rica. Although tree‐level soil P alone did not drive patterns in nutrient resorption, P efficiency and proficiency declined with increasing tree‐level soil P when reproductive status was also considered. Nutrient resorption declined with increasing tree‐level soil P in trees that were actively fruiting or that experienced high...

Litterfall reflects forest productivity and is an important pathway of nutrient cycling in forests. We quantified litter quantity, nutrient concentrations, and decomposability for 22 permanently marked plots that included gradients of altitude (a range of 320-780 m), soil nutrients and past disturbance in a cool temperate evergreen montane rain forest in the western South Island of New Zealand. For each plot we quantified total fine litterfall and sorted it into components over a 2-year period, and for each of four widespread tree species in each plot (when present) we measured litter nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations, litter decomposability, and the release of litter N and P during decomposition. Total fine litterfall (mean 2.96 Mg ha-1 year-1) was low compared with other similar montane forests in New Zealand and elsewhere, and it declined with altitude and increasing successional stage of the plots. However, litterfall of four widespread tree species was unrelated to successional stage and that of only one was related to altitude. Further, neither total fine litterfall nor that of these four species was related to soil N or P concentrations with one exception. For the four species we found substantial variation among plots in litter N and P concentrations (up to 16-fold for N, 57-fold for P), litter decomposability, and the release of N and P during decomposition. Despite this, these variables were only rarely correlated with altitude, successional status, or soil nutrient concentrations across plots. Our results suggest that within-species variability in litterfall, nutrient concentrations, and decomposability are likely to be substantial in systems that have a high level of spatial variability because of recurrent large disturbances, and this has potentially important implications for the cycling of carbon, N and P, at the landscape scale.

This study was conducted to provide baseline fauna for the butterflies of Takht-e-Nusrati Karak region. The butterflies were collected during April-December 2016 from 5 different localities of Takht-e-Nusrati Karak areas. The collected specimens yielded 17 species from families Namphalidae, Papilionidae and Pieridae cover 35%, 12%, and 53% of the butterflies. Family Namphalidae included species Argynnis hyperbius,

Ensete ventricosum is a perennial, security crop that feeds about 13 million people in Ethiopia. It is grown in the homesteads, covering about 18% of the farm, in mixture with Coffee, kale, and other vegetables. The recent shift from enset to cereals and continual soil fertility decline in the outfields caused food deficit for at least 3 months in a year. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of soil fertility gradients on enset growth, identify the major growth limiting nutrients, and identify farmers' decision making criteria in allocating resources to various enterprises. The research was conducted on farmers fields of resource rich (G1) and poor (G3) for four years (2001-2004). Enset transplants were planted in homestead and outfields. Application of fertilizers by farmers to different units over seasons and years was recorded. Enset growth and nutrient content was measured. The results showed that the G1 group produced about 2xs more organic waste than G3, and purchased chemical fertilizers 5xs more than the G3 farmers. About 80 % of the organic resource produced was allocated for maintaining soil fertility, while 20% being allocated as cooking fuel. Of this 65% is allocated for the enset field in the homestead. There was significantly higher N, P, K and Ca contents in the home stead soils than in the outfield, regardless of farmers' resource endowment. The P content of the outfield was the lowest, less than 25% of the P content of the homestead. Similarly organic matter in the outfield was only about 40% of the homestead. Enset plants grown in the outfields experienced about 90% height reduction and 50% reduction in pseudo stem diameter, regardless of resource categories, while the NPK content of the plant tissues grown in the outfield was significantly higher, in some case up to 150% than those planted in homestead. We thus concluded that growth reduction in the outfield was not directly related to NPK deficiency, but it could have been caused by off-season moisture stress in the outfields, manifested by low soil organic matter. The attempt to attract resources to the outfield using enset as an attractant crop failed, not because of labour shortage but because of unavailability of enough organic resources in the system. Hence on spot management of nutrients was initiated by farmers.

Volcanic mountains in the East African Rift (e.g. Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elgon) are some of the most productive agricultural regions, often dominated by coffee and banana cultivation. Consequently, these regions suffer from a high and increasing population density with a declining soil fertility status imposing pressure on the available land, which in turn results in encroaching into the national forests. This study documents the soil fertility constraints along the slopes of Mt. Elgon and explores its corresponding gradients in plant nutritional status. This research links the topography of Mt. Elgon to the prevailing soil types and their current fertility status. It reveals important relations and gradients between soil fertility parameters and its corresponding environment along the slope. Soil pH, soil available P and exchangeable K, Ca and Mg are significantly decreasing with elevation. Thereby, gradients and constraints in macro-and micronutrient uptake by coffee and banana are revealed along the toposequence and different altitude-specific nutrient limitations are determined for both crops. K, Mn and Si uptake in both crops is decreasing with elevation along the slope, while the Mo and Ni uptake in both crops is increasing. With increasing elevation, B uptake is only decreasing in coffee and P uptake is only decreasing in banana. In addition, the antagonistic interaction between K and Mg limits the Mg uptake of both crops in the lower areas, while in the high region the Mg uptake is simply limited by low soil availability. It follows that a general fertilizer recommendation cannot be made in these regions and that the soil fertility problems along these slopes should be specifically addressed and appropriately managed according to the local requirements.

Nutrient accessions in litterfall are described for a mixed conifer (mostly Agathis australis D.Don (Lindl.), New Zealand kauri) and angiosperm temperate forest in northern New Zealand to determine the relative contributions to nutrient cycling of the conifer and angiosperm components of the forest. Concentrations for many nutrients were significantly lower in conifer litterfall fractions than for equivalent angiosperm fractions. Angiosperm leaves had concentrations of N and P twice those found in conifer leaf fall. Despite a large contribution to litterfall from weight, conifer reproductive parts (mostly cone scales) were very low in nutrients (especially N, P and Ca). Whereas angiosperm litterfall constituted < 45% of total litterfall by weight, nutrient accessions from the angiosperm component accounted for 45-60% of total nutrient accessions and the conifer fraction for only 30-45%, almost the exact reverse of their contributions to litterfall by weight. Of the macronutrients, P (3 kg ha-1 year-1) showed the lowest rate of accession in litterfall while Ca (84 kg ha-1 year-1) showed the highest. Faunal detritus, although < 1% of total litterfall by weight, contributed 10% of total P and 4% of total N reaching the forest floor via the litterfall pathway each year. The C:N and C:P ratios in litterfall and litterstore were all well above the levels at which mineralization is likely to occur. Based on the estimated residence times, long-term immobilization was more likely for N than for P. The annual pattern of nutrient accessions differed for the two components, with angiosperm accessions highest in spring and summer, and conifer accessions highest in autumn, due largely to a peak in litterfall of reproductive parts at that time of year. It is argued that differences in litter quality, decomposition rates and spatial and temporal patterns of litterfall for angiosperm versus conifer components of the forest, in conjunction with long-term disturbance regimes, may contribute to conifer-angiosperm coexistence.

This study was conducted to provide baseline fauna for the butterflies of Takht-e-Nusrati Karak region. The butterflies were collected during April-December 2016 from 5 different localities of Takht-e-Nusrati Karak areas. The collected specimens yielded 17 species from families Namphalidae, Papilionidae and Pieridae cover 35%, 12%, and 53% of the butterflies. Family Namphalidae included species Argynnis hyperbius, Cynthia cardui, Ariadne merione, Junonia orithya, Phalanta phalantha and Hipparchia parisati. Family Papilionidae: Catopsilia Pomona, Colias croceus, Colotis etrida, C. protractus, Eumera hecab, Pieris ajaka, P. brassicae, P. rapae and P. napae respectively. While Pieridae included Papilio demoleus and P. polytes only.

This paper studies leaf respiration responses to temperature and canopy position of the kenaf cultivars Tainnung 2 and Everglades 41. Measurements took place during night in central Greece, in 2005. No differences were observed among the two cultivars. Leaf position significantly affected respiration with the sun leaves achieving higher values than the shade leaves (1.525 and 0.67 µmol CO 2 m-2 s-1 respectively). Sun leaves were less sensitive (Q 10 =3.44) to change in leaf temperature than the shade leaves (Q 10 =3.60). Reference respiration (at 25 o C) decreased rapidly (127%) with canopy depth. Our results suggest that under the prevailing conditions kenaf has high respiration rates.

We measured the short-term direct and long-term indirect effects of elevated CO 2 on leaf dark respiration of loblolly pine ( Pinus taeda ) and sweetgum ( Liquidambar styraciflua ) in an intact forest ecosystem. Trees were exposed to ambient or ambient + 200 m m m m mol mol --- -1 atmospheric CO 2 using free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) technology. After correcting for measurement artefacts, a shortterm 200 m m m m mol mol --- -1 increase in CO 2 reduced leaf respiration by 7-14% for sweetgum and had essentially no effect on loblolly pine. This direct suppression of respiration was independent of the CO 2 concentration under which the trees were grown. Growth under elevated CO 2 did not appear to have any long-term indirect effects on leaf maintenance respiration rates or the response of respiration to changes in temperature ( Q 10 , R 0 ). Also, we found no relationship between mass-based respiration rates and leaf total nitrogen concentrations. Leaf construction costs were unaffected by growth CO 2 concentration, although leaf construction respiration decreased at elevated CO 2 in both species for leaves at the top of the canopy. We conclude that elevated CO 2 has little effect on leaf tissue respiration, and that the influence of elevated CO 2 on plant respiratory carbon flux is primarily through increased biomass.

The natural territory disturbance, losses, and degradation are real and alarming threats to the ecosystem. The population of butterflies remains arbitrary in prairie residuals and linear range habitats. Such environments are low, isolated, and sub-quality than intact prairies-biodiversity losses associated with ecosystems regulating services and supporting services. Therefore, the present study was conducted on environmental variables and soil gradient and its effects on butterfly colonies in tehsil Tangi, Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 506 specimens of butterflies and soil samples were collected from different localities randomly. Butterflies were collected with aerial nets, searching, and picking method, and taken to the laboratory for identification and recording concerning each location every two weeks from August 2014 to May 2015. The similarity index among individuals was 246 (47%), while among species 45.5 (8.62%) and Catopsilia pyranthe were at (35/122; 14/30; 7/14; 6.91/24.11) position, similarly in dissimilarity index, Catopsilia ponoma was at (58/122; 19/30; 9/14; 11.460/24.11) position. The density revealed that the Danauas chrysippus was the most abundant species 122/506. Similarly, among environmental gradients, silt associated considerably with pH, wilting point (Wp), field capacity (Fc), bulk density (Bd), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Shy) and available water (Aw) (p≈0.000), sand with pH, Wp, Fc and Bd (p≈0.000), pH with Wp, Fc and Bd (p≈0.000), Wp with Fc, Bd, and Aw (p≈0.000), Fc with Bd and Aw (p≈0.000). We concluded that low latitude and altitude, excessive amounts of insecticides and pesticides show a significant impact on butterflies' diversity.

Volcanic mountains in the East African Rift (e.g. Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elgon) are some of the most productive agricultural regions, often dominated by coffee and banana cultivation. Consequently, these regions suffer from a high and increasing population density with a declining soil fertility status imposing pressure on the available land, which in turn results in encroaching into the national forests. This study documents the soil fertility constraints along the slopes of Mt. Elgon and explores its corresponding gradients in plant nutritional status. This research links the topography of Mt. Elgon to the prevailing soil types and their current fertility status. It reveals important relations and gradients between soil fertility parameters and its corresponding environment along the slope. Soil pH, soil available P and exchangeable K, Ca and Mg are significantly decreasing with elevation. Thereby, gradients and constraints in macro-and micro-nutrient uptake by coffee and banana are revealed along the toposequence and different altitude-specific nutrient limitations are determined for both crops. K, Mn and Si uptake in both crops is decreasing with elevation along the slope, while the Mo and Ni uptake in both crops is increasing. With increasing elevation, B uptake is only decreasing in coffee and P uptake is only decreasing in banana. In addition, the antagonistic interaction between K and Mg limits the Mg uptake of both crops in the lower areas, while in the high region the Mg uptake is simply limited by low soil availability. It follows that a general fertilizer recommendation cannot be made in these regions and that the soil fertility problems along these slopes should be specifically addressed and appropriately managed according to the local requirements.

Alnus glutinosa (Betulaceae) has a widespread distribution in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkey. In this study, annual nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and foliar resorption efficiency and proficiency were investigated in A. glutinosa. N and P concentrations were decreased in senescent leaves. Statistically significant differences were found in P concentrations while there were no found significant differences in N concentrations with respect to months. A negative correlation was obtained between SLA and LMA, SLA and N concentrations. However, there were significant correlations between LMA and N concentrations. N and P resorption efficiency (NRE, PRE) and proficiency (NRP, PRP) values were high as compared to the other deciduous species. These results indicate efficient internal cycling of nutrients especially P in A. glutinosa.

We measured the response of dark respiration (R d ) to temperature and foliage characteristics in the upper canopies of tree species in temperate rainforest communites in New Zealand along a soil chronosequence (six sites from 6 years to 120,000 years). The chronosequence provided a vegetation gradient characterised by significant changes in soil nutrition. This enabled us to examine the extent to which changes in dark respiration can be applied across forest biomes and the utility of scaling rules in whole-canopy carbon modelling. The response of respiration to temperature in the dominant tree species differed significantly between sites along the sequence. This involved changes in both R d at a reference temperature (R 10 ) and the extent to which R d increased with temperature (described by E o , a parameter related to the energy of activation, or the change in R d over a 10°C range, Q 10 ). Site averaged E o ranged from 44.4 kJ mol À1 K À1 at the 60-year-old site to 26.0 kJ mol À1 K À1 at the oldest, most nutrient poor, site. Relationships between respiratory and foliage characteristics indicated that both the temperature response of respiration (E o or Q 10 ) and the instantaneous rate of respiration increased with both foliar nitrogen and phosphorus content. The ratio of photosynthetic capacity (Whitehead et al. in Oecologia 2005) to respiration (A max /R d ) attained values in excess of 15 for species in the 6-to 120-year-old sites, but thereafter decreased significantly to around five at the 120,000year-old site. This indicates that shoot carbon acquisition is regulated by nutrient limitations in the retrogressing ecosystems on the oldest sites. Our findings indicate that respiration and its temperature response will vary according to soil age and, therefore, to soil nutrient availability and the stage of forest development. Thus, variability in respiratory characteristics for canopies should be considered when using models to integrate respiration at large spatial scales.

Acclimation of plant respiration rates (R) to climate warming is highly variable and many results appear contradictory. We tested the recently suggested hypotheses that preexisting, long-lived leaves should exhibit a relatively limited ability for R to acclimate to climate warming, and that acclimation would occur via changes in the short-term temperature sensitivity of respiration. Seedlings of a subalpine, evergreen tree species (Eucalyptus pauciflora) were grown under naturally fluctuating conditions within its natural distribution. We used a free air temperature increase (FATI) system of infra-red ceramic lamps to raise night-time leaf temperatures by 0.3 AE 0.1, 1.3 AE 0.1, and 2.2 AE 0.1 1C above ambient for 1 year. Light-saturated assimilation rates and plant growth did not change with nocturnal FATI treatments. Leaf R measured at prevailing temperatures did not differ between FATI treatments. Within each FATI treatment, nocturnal leaf R was highly sensitive to artificial temperature changes within minutes, and also correlated strongly with natural nocturnal and seasonal temperature variation. The corresponding values of Q 10 of R varied according to time scale of measurements, but did not vary between FATI treatments. Instead, acclimation of R to nocturnal FATI occurred through changes in the base rate of respiration.

This paper studies leaf respiration responses to temperature and canopy position of the kenaf cultivars Tainnung 2 and Everglades 41. Measurements took place during night in central Greece, in 2005. No differences were observed among the two cultivars. Leaf position significantly affected respiration with the sun leaves achieving higher values than the shade leaves (1.525 and 0.67 µmol CO 2 m -2 s -1 respectively). Sun leaves were less sensitive (Q 10 =3.44) to change in leaf temperature than the shade leaves (Q 10 =3.60). Reference respiration (at 25 o C) decreased rapidly (127%) with canopy depth. Our results suggest that under the prevailing conditions kenaf has high respiration rates.

1 Angiosperm trees often dominate forests growing in resource-rich habitats, whereas conifers are generally restricted to less productive habitats. It has been suggested that conifers may be displaced by angiosperms except where competition is less intense, because conifer seedlings are inherently slow growing, and are outpaced by faster-growing angiosperm species. Here we investigate whether competition with ferns and deeply shading trees also contributes to a failure of conifers to regenerate in resource-rich habitats.

It has been suggested that plants can change soil characteristics via their litter to favour their own species. The New Zealand kauri tree (Agathis australis) presents an interesting case for studying such a positive feedback between plant and soil because it has a huge impact upon the soil. We hypothesised that, under mature kauri trees, compared with sites outside the projection of the crown, seedlings of angiosperm trees are relatively rare, while kauri seedlings are relatively common, due to the poor soil conditions and the higher light intensity. We counted seedlings under and outside the crowns of kauri trees and correlated the presence of these seedlings to measured site conditions. The results confirm the hypotheses and indicate that the establishment of kauri seedlings is favoured by the open canopy and high light intensities below kauri. The low nutrient availability under kauri appears to be unfavourable for the survival of angiosperm seedlings but not for the survival of kauri seedlings. Since the lower nitrogen availability under kauri is due to sequestration of nitrogen in the organic layer under kauri, a positive feedback between kauri and the soil is likely. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Soil nitrogen and phosphorus pools shift strongly along soil chronosequences worldwide, but variation in plant nutrient resorption along these sequences is poorly understood. We quantified leaf and litter nutrient concentrations in 28 woody species along the Franz Josef soil chronosequence, New Zealand, a strong fertility gradient in temperate rain forest, to address two questions: How do leaf and litter nutrient concentrations vary along a soil chronosequence? And are the community-level responses driven by compositional differences among fertile and infertile sites, or by consistent changes in resorption proficiency within growth forms, and within species? Community-level leaf and litter N and P concentrations declined by between 67% and 88% along the soil chronosequence, and these responses were remarkably consistent within three contrasting growth forms (angiosperms, conifers, tree ferns), and within individual species. In spite of the three growth forms sharing similar responses to the soil chronosequence, tree ferns had higher absolute concentrations of leaf N, leaf P, and litter N relative to angiosperms, and higher concentrations of leaf N relative to conifers. These results clearly indicate that differences among fertile and infertile sites are driven both by compositional differences, as has been previously demonstrated, and by plasticity of individual species.

1 Angiosperm trees often dominate forests growing in resource-rich habitats, whereas conifers are generally restricted to less productive habitats. It has been suggested that conifers may be displaced by angiosperms except where competition is less intense, because conifer seedlings are inherently slow growing, and are outpaced by faster-growing angiosperm species. Here we investigate whether competition with ferns and deeply shading trees also contributes to a failure of conifers to regenerate in resource-rich habitats.

To investigate effects of green-leaf nutrient status on senesced-leaf nutrient concentrations and resorption efficiency, we developed a database of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in green and senesced leaves from 92 published studies. We fit power functions (i.e., [nutrient] sen ϭ A [nutrient] ) separately for N and P. The database B gr encompassed 297 perennial species of different life-forms. Across these divergent species and conditions, a major control on senesced-leaf nutrient concentration was green-leaf nutrient status; nutrient concentrations in senesced leaves were positively associated with green-leaf nutrient concentrations (r 2 values from 51% to 84%). Within-species variation as well as species differences contributed to the overall variation in nutrient concentrations. Moreover, N and P resorption efficiency decreased, respectively, with increased N and P green-leaf status; fitted power functions indicated that a disproportionate amount of nutrient remained in senesced leaves of higher green-leaf nutrient status. Functional relationships between nutrient concentrations in senesced and green leaves were indistinguishable for evergreen and deciduous species, but evergreens tended to have lower concentrations in both senesced and green leaves. General relationships (across species and environments) between senesced-and green-leaf nutrient concentrations and broad, intraspecific variation in nutrient concentrations suggest that variation in resorption efficiency and proficiency could be a result (and not necessarily a cause) of species sorting across fertility gradients.

Following catastrophic disturbances, succession and vegetation development occur, but in the prolonged absence of these disturbances a decline (retrogressive) phase follows in which nutrient availability and tree biomass declines considerably. We measured plant diversity across six long-term chronosequences that each included retrogressive stages in Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, Hawaii and Sweden. In contrast to theories predicting negative or hump-shaped responses of tree diversity to biomass or soil fertility, tree species richness often peaked coincidentally with tree basal area (a surrogate of tree biomass), and declined during retrogression. Similar patterns were found regardless of whether or not species richness estimates were rarefraction-adjusted to correct for variation in stem densities across plots. The Shannon-Weiner diversity index sometimes showed the same pattern, but in two chronosequences was least when tree basal area peaked; this was driven by the domination of total basal area by single tree species in both cases. The decline in tree diversity during retrogression was often associated with reduced relative amounts of total phosphorus in soil. In contrast, total vascular plant species richness often increased during retrogression. These results demonstrate that forests with high tree diversity and biomass do not persist indefinitely in the long-term absence of catastrophic disturbance, and that similar patterns occur across the boreal, temperate and subtropical zones.

We measured the response of dark respiration (R d ) to temperature and foliage characteristics in the upper canopies of tree species in temperate rainforest communites in New Zealand along a soil chronosequence (six sites from 6 years to 120,000 years). The chronosequence provided a vegetation gradient characterised by significant changes in soil nutrition. This enabled us to examine the extent to which changes in dark respiration can be applied across forest biomes and the utility of scaling rules in whole-canopy carbon modelling. The response of respiration to temperature in the dominant tree species differed significantly between sites along the sequence. This involved changes in both R d at a reference temperature (R 10 ) and the extent to which R d increased with temperature (described by E o , a parameter related to the energy of activation, or the change in R d over a 10°C range, Q 10 ). Site averaged E o ranged from 44.4 kJ mol À1 K À1 at the 60-year-old site to 26.0 kJ mol À1 K À1 at the oldest, most nutrient poor, site. Relationships between respiratory and foliage characteristics indicated that both the temperature response of respiration (E o or Q 10 ) and the instantaneous rate of respiration increased with both foliar nitrogen and phosphorus content. The ratio of photosynthetic capacity (Whitehead et al. in Oecologia 2005) to respiration (A max /R d ) attained values in excess of 15 for species in the 6-to 120-year-old sites, but thereafter decreased significantly to around five at the 120,000year-old site. This indicates that shoot carbon acquisition is regulated by nutrient limitations in the retrogressing ecosystems on the oldest sites. Our findings indicate that respiration and its temperature response will vary according to soil age and, therefore, to soil nutrient availability and the stage of forest development. Thus, variability in respiratory characteristics for canopies should be considered when using models to integrate respiration at large spatial scales.

Soil nitrogen and phosphorus pools shift strongly along soil chronosequences worldwide, but variation in plant nutrient resorption along these sequences is poorly understood. We quantified leaf and litter nutrient concentrations in 28 woody species along the Franz Josef soil chronosequence, New Zealand, a strong fertility gradient in temperate rain forest, to address two questions: How do leaf and litter nutrient concentrations vary along a soil chronosequence? And are the community-level responses driven by compositional differences among fertile and infertile sites, or by consistent changes in resorption proficiency within growth forms, and within species? Community-level leaf and litter N and P concentrations declined by between 67% and 88% along the soil chronosequence, and these responses were remarkably consistent within three contrasting growth forms (angiosperms, conifers, tree ferns), and within individual species. In spite of the three growth forms sharing similar responses to the soil chronosequence, tree ferns had higher absolute concentrations of leaf N, leaf P, and litter N relative to angiosperms, and higher concentrations of leaf N relative to conifers. These results clearly indicate that differences among fertile and infertile sites are driven both by compositional differences, as has been previously demonstrated, and by plasticity of individual species.

The aim of this study was to examine how shifts in soil nutrient availability along a soil chronosequence affected temperate rainforest vegetation. Soil nutrient availability, woody plant diversity, composition and structure, and woody species leaf and litter nutrient concentrations were quantified along the sequence through ecosystem progression and retrogression. In this superwet, high leaching environment, the chronosequence exhibited rapid soil development and decline within 120,000 years. There were strong gradients of soil pH, N, P and C, and these had a profound effect on vegetation. N:P leaf increased along the chronosequence as vegetation shifted from being N-to P-limited. However, high N:P leaf ratios, which indicate P-limitation, were obtained on soils with both high and low soil P availability. This was because the high N-inputs from an N-fixing shrub caused vegetation to be P-limited in spite of high soil P availability. Woody species nutrient resorption increased with site age, as availability of N and P declined. Soil P declined 8-fold along the sequence and P resorption proficiency decreased from 0.07 to 0.01%, correspondingly. N resorption proficiency decreased from 1.54 to 0.26%, corresponding to shifts in mineralisable N. Woody plant species richness, vegetation cover and tree height increased through ecosystem progression and then declined. During retrogression, the forest became shorter, more open and less diverse, and there were compositional shifts towards stress-tolerant species. Conifers (of the Podocarpaceae) were the only group to increase in richness along the sequence. Conifers maintained a lower N:P leaf than other groups, suggesting superior acquisition of P on poor soils. In conclusion, there was evidence that P limitation and retrogressive forests developed on old soils, but N limitation on very young soils was not apparent because of inputs from an abundant N-fixing shrub.