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Role of Nitrogen in Plant Growth and Production
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Role of Nitrogen in Plant Growth and Production

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 537

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Louis Irving

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8577, Japan
Interests: nitrogen; carbon; plant growth; parasitism; photosynthesis; germination; competition for resources
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nitrogen is a core component of a vast range of biological molecules, and its availability is a fundamental factor in the growth and development of plants. At the individual plant level, nitrogen has a wide range of effects on plant growth and shape, while photosynthetic rates strongly correlate with tissue N concentrations, largely attributable to the need for large amounts of the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco. At the ecological level, N availability limits ecosystem productivity in most natural and semi-natural ecosystems worldwide and has profound implications for ecological interactions both within and between trophic levels. While nitrogen comprises approximately four-fifths of the planet’s atmosphere, this pool is unusable in its gaseous form for most plant species, except those with N-fixing bacterial symbionts.

Over the last century, the commercial production of ammonia via industrial methods has facilitated a huge increase in food production, reflecting the sharp increase in the global population. However, fertilizer leaching from agricultural soils has become a major ecological issue, causing eutrophication and a decline in environmental quality. Going forward, a massive increase in plant nutrient use efficiency will be required to support ongoing human development while minimizing damage caused to the environment.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions focused on a broad range of topics related to the relationship between plants and nitrogen. These may range from the molecular to the agronomic and ecological levels and may cover any topic related to N capture, uptake, or its relation to plant growth and productivity.

Dr. Louis Irving
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nitrogen
  • growth
  • photosynthesis
  • physiology
  • nitrogen uptake
  • nitrogen use efficiency
  • N remobilization
  • production

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 3665 KiB  
Article
Nutrient Additions Regulate Height Growth Rate but Not Biomass Growth Rate of Alpine Plants Through the Contrasting Effect of Total and Available Nitrogen
by Runfang Feng, Shu Wang, Jikui Ma, Nannan Wang, Xiaoli Wang, Fei Ren, Honglin Li, Defei Liang, Jing Hu, Xilai Li and Lanping Li
Plants 2025, 14(7), 1143; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14071143 - 6 Apr 2025
Viewed by 403
Abstract
Plant growth, a fundamental biological process that underpins terrestrial ecosystem function, is susceptible to nutrient availability. Despite extensive research on lowland ecosystems, the responses of alpine plant growth to nutrient addition remain poorly understood, particularly given the heightened sensitivity of alpine ecosystems to [...] Read more.
Plant growth, a fundamental biological process that underpins terrestrial ecosystem function, is susceptible to nutrient availability. Despite extensive research on lowland ecosystems, the responses of alpine plant growth to nutrient addition remain poorly understood, particularly given the heightened sensitivity of alpine ecosystems to global change. To investigate the effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) additions on the growth rates of alpine plants and the underlying mechanisms of how these nutrient additions influence plant growth rates, we conducted an experiment in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, targeting 14 common plant species. Growth rates were measured using biomass and height, with plant height and soil physicochemical properties recorded biweekly during the growing season. We assessed the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus additions on growth rates, their seasonal dynamics, and their relationships with soil physicochemical properties. Results showed that phosphorus addition and combined nitrogen-phosphorus additions significantly increased the relative growth rate based on height (RGRH). In contrast, nutrient additions had no significant effect on the relative growth rate based on biomass (RGRB). RGRH decreased from June and early July to August, exhibiting species-specific responses to nutrient additions. Additionally, RGRH was significantly influenced by the interaction of nitrogen and phosphorus additions, species, and seasonal dynamics (p < 0.05). Soil available N, available P, and moisture were significantly positively correlated with RGRH (p < 0.05), while soil temperature (ST), total nitrogen (TN), and soil organic carbon (SOC) exhibited significant negative correlations (p < 0.05). Nutrient additions altered the hierarchy, as well as the direct and indirect factors that influence RGRH, revealing the opposing regulatory effects of total and available nitrogen. These findings highlight the critical roles of nitrogen and phosphorus, suggesting phosphorus is a potential limiting factor for plant growth in this alpine region. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of how nitrogen and phosphorus additions affect alpine plant growth rates and clarifies the underlying mechanisms in these sensitive ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Role of Nitrogen in Plant Growth and Production)
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