Distance from the trunk and depth of uptake of labelled nitrate for dominant and suppressed trees in Brazilian Eucalyptus plantations: Consequences for fertilization practices

•The maximum distance from the trunk where Eucalyptus roots take up mobile nutrients was studied.•NO3−-15N was injected down to 15 m depthand leaves were sampled 5months later.•Dominant trees took up NO3−-15N in deeper soil layers than suppressed trees.•Most of the NO3−-15N tracer was taken up at <3 m from the trunk, whatever tree age.•The proportion of fertilized inter-rows cannot be lower than 50% in eucalypt plantations.