A comparative kinetic analysis of nitrate and ammonium influx in two early‐successional tree species of temperate and boreal forest ecosystems
Root NO3 - and NH4 + influx systems of two earlysuccessional species of temperate (trembling aspen: Populus tremuloides Michx.) and boreal (lodgepole pine: Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) forest ecosystems were characterized. NO3 - and NH4 + influxes were biphasic, consisting of saturable high-affinity (HATS) and constitutive non-saturable low-affinity transport systems (LATS) that were evident at low and relatively high N concentrations, respectively. NO3 - influx via HATS was inducible (IHATS); nitrate pre-treatment resulted in 8‐10-fold increases in the Vmax for influx in both species. By contrast, HATS for NH4 + were entirely constitutive. In both species, Vmax values for NH4 + influx were higher than those for NO3 - uptake; the differences were larger in pine (6-fold) than aspen (1·8-fold). In aspen, the Km for NH4 + influx by HATS was approximately 3-fold higher than for IHATS NO3 - influx, while in pine the Km for IHATS NO3 - influx was approximately 3-fold higher than for NH4 + influx. The aspen IHATS for NO3 - influx appeared to be more efficient than that of pine (Vmax values for aspen being approximately 10-fold higher and Km values being approximately 13-fold lower than for pine). By contrast, only small differences in values for the NH4 + HATS were evident between the two species. The kinetic parameters observed here probably result from adaptations to the N availabilities in their respective natural habitats; these may contribute to the distribution and niche separation of these species.