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Species‐richness and soil phosphorus in plant communities in coastal New South Wales
Author(s) -
ADAM P.,
STRICKER P.,
ANDERSON D. J.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
australian journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1442-9993
pISSN - 0307-692X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-9993.1989.tb01426.x
Subject(s) - species richness , quadrat , phosphorus , ecology , competition (biology) , geography , biology , chemistry , organic chemistry , shrub
Species‐richness (recorded as number of species in 16 m 2 quadrats), in more than 60 coastal sites developed over various substrata, exhibited a significant non‐linear relationship with soil total phosphorus extracted from associated soil samples. Although the general form of this relationship is not incompatible with a resource competition model, the significant proportion of the total variance accounted for by the species‐richness/phosphorus relationship suggests that a more detailed examination of phosphorus use at a community level will be profitable.