Phosphorus acquisition and resorption: exploring species-level trade-offs dataset

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Phosphorus (P) acquisition from soil and its internal recycling via leaf resorption are two important processes by which plants meet their P requirements. However, how these processes relate to each other remains poorly understood. We examined leaf nutrient concentrations, resorption efficiencies and proficiencies, and P-acquisition strategies of 41 native plant species across four sites with soil total P concentrations ranging from <20 to 500 mg kg-1. We hypothesised that species with more costly P-acquisition strategies, e.g., cluster roots, would have lower P concentrations in green and senesced leaves and exhibit higher P resorption efficiency (PRE) than species relying on less costly strategies, e.g., arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM). We also examined whether leaf economic traits, including leaf mass area (LMA), leaf nutrient concentrations, and their resorption patterns, varied among P-acquisition strategies. Consistent with our expectations, species with cluster root strategy had significantly lower green and senesced P concentrations by ~1.5 to 2-fold than AM species across. PRE was high overall, averaging 70% across all species and sites, however, it did not vary among contrasting P-acquisition strategies contrary to our expectation. The consistently high PRE across strategies, overall high P resorption proficiency and high leaf N:P ratios of species across all sites reflect widespread P limitation across our study sites. Species with cluster-root strategy tended to occupy a more conservative trait space, characterised by high LMA, low green leaf N and P concentration, and high N and P resorption proficiency, while AM species were associated with more acquisitive traits. By linking soil P status, P-acquisition strategies, and leaf P recycling dynamics, this study highlights the important role of both internal leaf P recycling and soil P uptake when assessing plant P-use strategies in P-limited ecosystems. This dataset contains one text file (csv format) containing data for 31 parameters measured for altogether 41 species at the four-different site across Australia.