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Biome-scale nitrogen fixation strategies selected by climatic constraints on nitrogen cycle

Overview of attention for article published in Nature Plants, November 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (89th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
7 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
twitter
8 X users
googleplus
2 Google+ users

Citations

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77 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
146 Mendeley
Title
Biome-scale nitrogen fixation strategies selected by climatic constraints on nitrogen cycle
Published in
Nature Plants, November 2015
DOI 10.1038/nplants.2015.182
Pubmed ID
Authors

Efrat Sheffer, Sarah A. Batterman, Simon A. Levin, Lars O. Hedin

Abstract

Dinitrogen fixation by plants (in symbiosis with root bacteria) is a major source of new nitrogen for land ecosystems(1). A long-standing puzzle(2) is that trees capable of nitrogen fixation are abundant in nitrogen-rich tropical forests, but absent or restricted to early successional stages in nitrogen-poor extra-tropical forests. This biome-scale pattern presents an evolutionary paradox(3), given that the physiological cost(4) of nitrogen fixation predicts the opposite pattern: fixers should be out-competed by non-fixers in nitrogen-rich conditions, but competitively superior in nitrogen-poor soils. Here we evaluate whether this paradox can be explained by the existence of different fixation strategies in tropical versus extra-tropical trees: facultative fixers (capable of downregulating fixation(5,6) by sanctioning mutualistic bacteria(7)) are common in the tropics, whereas obligate fixers (less able to downregulate fixation) dominate at higher latitudes. Using a game-theoretic approach, we assess the ecological and evolutionary conditions under which these fixation strategies emerge, and examine their dependence on climate-driven differences in the nitrogen cycle. We show that in the tropics, transient soil nitrogen deficits following disturbance and rapid tree growth favour a facultative strategy and the coexistence of fixers and non-fixers. In contrast, sustained nitrogen deficits following disturbance in extra-tropical forests favour an obligate fixation strategy, and cause fixers to be excluded in late successional stages. We conclude that biome-scale differences in the abundance of nitrogen fixers can be explained by the interaction between individual plant strategies and climatic constraints on the nitrogen cycle over evolutionary time.

X Demographics

X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 146 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Panama 1 <1%
Taiwan 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Unknown 142 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 38 26%
Researcher 31 21%
Student > Master 19 13%
Student > Doctoral Student 11 8%
Student > Bachelor 7 5%
Other 14 10%
Unknown 26 18%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 55 38%
Environmental Science 38 26%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 8 5%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 3%
Unspecified 2 1%
Other 5 3%
Unknown 34 23%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 71. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 December 2015.
All research outputs
#599,854
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from Nature Plants
#356
of 2,041 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#9,819
of 393,282 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Plants
#5
of 48 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,373,627 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,041 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 50.6. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 393,282 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 48 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.