Abstract: To investigate the effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on the seedlings regeneration of Liquidambar formosana, a greenhouse experiment was conducted, in which, the low light- and nitrogen supplies were controlled similar to those in typical L. formosana secondary forests, with the effects of different light- and nitrogen supply on the L. formosana seedlings survival, leaf functional traits, biomass allocation, and gas exchange studied. The whole plant light compensation point (LCP_whole-plant) of the seedlings was estimated with a whole plant carbon balance model, and then compared with the understory photosynthetic active radiance (PAR) of the typical secondary forests. Under 3.0% and 6.0% of full sunlight, eutrophic nitrogen supply led to a decrease of seedlings survival (shade tolerance) and specific leaf area (SLA), but had no obvious effects on the seedlings biomass allocation. At eutrophic nitrogen supply, light intensity had significant effects on the leaf area based maximum assimilation rate, whereas increasing nitrogen supply under low light induced the increase of leaf mass based dark respiration rate. Both light intensity and nitrogen supply had significant effects on the mass based leaf respiration rate, and the interaction of light and nitrogen had significant effects on the mass based stem respiration rate. Increasing nitrogen supply increased the LCP_whole-plant under 3.0%, 6.0%, and 12.0% of full sunlight, but decreased the LCP_whole-plant  under 25.0% of full sunlight. The decrease of the seedlings shade tolerance induced by the increasing  nitrogen supply under low light was correlated with the variations of the seedlings carbon balance capacity. Under the background of elevated atmospheric nitrogen deposition, the maintenance of L. formosana populations in China would more depend on disturbances and gap regeneration, and the population dynamics would be deeply affected.

Key words: Liquidambar formosana, nitrogen supply, photosynthesis, carbon balance