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Soil Amino Acids At Upper Tree Line, Montane And Lower Tree Line, Kelly C. Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The classic view of the nitrogen cycle in soils is for plants to take up inorganic N in solution for N nutrition. More recent studies reveal plants can take up low molecular weight dissolved organic N such as amino acids directly from the soil. In ecosystems where the rate of microbial mineralization is limited, plants may take up 10 to 200 percent more amino acid N than mineral N. It is not known if plants take up amino acids in all ecosystems, however recent research shows that plants generally take up amino acids when they are present in high quantities …