The paper entitled “Unravelling community assemblages through multi-element stoichiometry in plant leaves and roots across primary successional stages in a glacier retreat area” recently published in Plant and Soil (Jiang et al., 2018; Volume 428, Issue 1–2, pp 291–305) provides new materials to understand the biotic interactions and abiotic filtering effects on community succession. However, a major conclusion of the paper that “the limiting factor for plant growth shifted from nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P) over one century of deglaciation” is doubtful. Specifically, the limitation of P to plant growth at the last stage of the succession (the 120-year-old site) in the Hailuogou glacier foreland chronosequence is unlikely happening.The paper entitled “Unravelling community assemblages through multi-element stoichiometry in plant leaves and roots across primary successional stages in a glacier retreat area” recently published in Plant and Soil (Jiang et al., 2018; Volume 428, Issue 1–2, pp 291–305) provides new materials to understand the biotic interactions and abiotic filtering effects on community succession. However, a major conclusion of the paper that “the limiting factor for plant growth shifted from nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P) over one century of deglaciation” is doubtful. Specifically, the limitation of P to plant growth at the last stage of the succession (the 120-year-old site) in the Hailuogou glacier foreland chronosequence is unlikely happening.