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Title: Global scale environmental control of plant photosynthetic capacity

Journal Article · · Ecological Applications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1890/14-2111.1· OSTI ID:1238734
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [2];  [9];  [9]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  4. Univ. of Western Sydney, NSW (Australia)
  5. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  7. Univ. of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN (United States); Univ. of Western Sydney, NSW (Australia)
  8. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
  9. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)

Photosynthetic capacity, determined by light harvesting and carboxylation reactions, is a key plant trait that determines the rate of photosynthesis; but, in Earth System Models (ESMs) at a reference temperature, it is either a fixed value for a given plant functional type or derived from a linear function of leaf nitrogen content. In our study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis that considered correlations of environmental factors with photosynthetic capacity as determined by maximum carboxylation (Vc,m) rate scaled to 25°C (i.e., Vc,25; μmol CO2·m-2·s-1) and maximum electron transport rate (Jmax) scaled to 25°C (i.e., J25; μmol electron·m-2·s-1) at the global scale. Our results showed that the percentage of variation in observed Vc,25 and J25 explained jointly by the environmental factors (i.e., day length, radiation, temperature, and humidity) were 2–2.5 times and 6–9 times of that explained by area-based leaf nitrogen content, respectively. Environmental factors influenced photosynthetic capacity mainly through photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency, rather than through leaf nitrogen content. The combination of leaf nitrogen content and environmental factors was able to explain ~56% and ~66% of the variation in Vc,25 and J25 at the global scale, respectively. These analyses suggest that model projections of plant photosynthetic capacity and hence land–atmosphere exchange under changing climatic conditions could be substantially improved if environmental factors are incorporated into algorithms used to parameterize photosynthetic capacity in ESMs.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; SC00112704
OSTI ID:
1238734
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1335395
Report Number(s):
BNL-111829-2016-JA; KP1702010; ERKP757
Journal Information:
Ecological Applications, Vol. 25, Issue 8; ISSN 1051-0761
Publisher:
Ecological Society of AmericaCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Phosphorus deficiency alters scaling relationships between leaf gas exchange and associated traits in a wide range of contrasting Eucalyptus species journal January 2018
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Global photosynthetic capacity is optimized to the environment journal January 2019
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