Phosphorus fertilization stimulates nitrogen fixation and increases inorganic nitrogen concentrations in a restored prairie

Abstract Phosphorus (P) has been proposed to directly limit primary productivity in some temperate grassland ecosystems. Our study of a recovering prairie on Colorado's Front Range suggests that P availability, possibly via regulation of nitrogen (N) fixation, may strongly influence N availability in recovering prairie soils. Consequently, increased P availability could indirectly affect plant growth through the alleviation of N limitation. At our site, concentrations of soil inorganic N were nearly three times higher in plots fertilized with P than in control plots. Subsequent acetylene reduction analyses showed that soil N fixation rates were more than double for P fertilization plots. These results highlight potential difficulties for fertilization studies of nutrient limitation in recovering prairie ecosystems and imply opportunities for prairie restoration. Additionally, the data suggest that in nutrient poor environments such as this one, the absolute availability of soil P more strongly controls rates of N fixation than the N-to-P ratio of the soil.