Nutrient use strategies have been studied in the context of soil nutrient availability rather than climate change, and little is known about spatial patterns of nutrient utilization with latitude and longitude.Here we identified what factors drive spatial patterns of nutrient use and resorption at broadscales.Nutrient use and resorption efficiency strongly exhibited monotonic gradients with latitude and longitude, which was driven by climate at regional scales, but not soil nutrient availability at local scales.Precipitation and temperature played different roles in driving such gradients.There were no negative correlations between nutrient use and nutrient resorption in Carex moorcroftii and Stipa purpurea, both of which shared similar soil nutrient use strategies across all sites.These findings suggest that alpine plants either decrease the use of some nutrients or increase the use of other nutrients in response to climate change in the future.