Productivity of tropical lowland moist forests is often limited by availability and functional allocation of phosphorus (P) that drives competition among tree species and becomes a key factor in determining forestall community diversity. We used non-target 31P-NMR metabolic profiling to study the foliar P-metabolism of trees of a French Guiana rainforest. The objective was to test the hypotheses that P-use is species-specific, and that species diversity relates to species P-use and concentrations of P-containing compounds, including inorganic phosphates, orthophosphate monoesters and diesters, phosphonates and organic polyphosphates. We found that tree species explained the 59% of variance in 31P-NMR metabolite profiling of leaves. A principal component analysis showed that tree species were separated along PC 1 and PC 2 of detected P-containing compounds, which represented a continuum going from high concentrations of metabolites related to non-active P and P-storage, low total P concentrations and high N:P ratios, to high concentrations of P-containing metabolites related to energy and anabolic metabolism, high total P concentrations and low N:P ratios. These results highlight the species-specific use of P and the existence of species-specific P-use niches that are driven by the distinct species-specific position in a continuum in the P-allocation from P-storage compounds to P-containing molecules related to energy and anabolic metabolism.

Cirad UMR EcoFoG Campus Agronomique 97310 Kourou French Guiana

CREAF Cerdanyola del Vallès 08193 Catalonia Spain

CSIC Global Ecology Unit CREAF CSIC UAB Bellaterra 08193 Catalonia Spain

Department of Biology University of Antwerp BE 2610 Wilrijk Belgium

Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Belidla 986 4a CZ 60300 Brno Czech Republic

INRA UMR EcoFoG CNRS Cirad AgroParisTech Université des Antilles Université de Guyane 97310 Kourou France

Laboratoire Ecologie évolution Interactions des Systèmes Amazoniens Université de Guyane CNRS IFREMER 97300 Cayenne French Guiana

Servei de Ressonància Magnètica Nuclear Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona E 08193 Bellaterra Catalonia Spain

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Tree Species and Epiphyte Taxa Determine the "Metabolomic niche" of Canopy Suspended Soils in a Species-Rich Lowland Tropical Rainforest