Strategies for Maximizing Nutrient Uptake in Two Mediterranean Ecosystems of Low Nutrient Status

The problems of nutrient uptake by plants in mediterranean ecosystems are centred largely on restriction of effective rainfall to only part of the year, usually under six months, with that part also being the coolest. These limitations are intensified in those ecosystems with strongly leached soils derived from inherently infertile parent material (see Chapter 7, this volume). As prime examples, the mediterranean regions of South Africa and Western Australia are recognized as the most nutrient-impoverished of the six mediterranean ecosystems (Beadle 1966; Specht 1979; Cowling and Campbell 1980). Plant losses through drought (Marloth 1915; Hnatiuk and Hopkins 1980) and nutrient-deficiency symptoms (Schutte 1960; chlorosis on some soils) are indicators of the constraints of the edaphic environment in South African fynbos and Australian heath.