The seasonal variations in nitrogen and phosphorus fractions and cations in 2 species of Atriplex common to Western Australia (Atriplex amnicola P.G. Wilson and Atriplex nummularia Lindl.) were investigated. Both species contain high concentrations of nitrogen (N) in winter as compared with summer when both species contain high concentrations of sodium. The sum of soluble protein-N, amino acid-N, nucleic acid-N and nitrate-N is about half of the total nitrogen. The remainder includes non-soluble protein-N and other N associated with cell membranes and walls. Phosphorus was more uniformly distributed among pools of inorganic-P, phytate-P, nucleic acid-P and other (residual) fractions. We suggest that interpretation of animal nutrition studies based on similar trichloroacetic acid (TCA) fractionations might be improved by independent estimation of soluble proteins. Fractionation using TCA provides valuable information about the subcellular distribution of both N and P in foliage tissues for study of plant physiology and animal nutrition. Concentrations of major nutrients in foliage of both species were significantly and negatively correlated with monthly maximum temperature and significantly and positively correlated with monthly rainfall. In summer and early autumn the apparent nutritive value of both species is well below the basic requirement of sheep or other grazing ruminants such as goats. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.