Iain Colin Prentice results 13
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Global Assessment of Environmental and Plant‐Trait Influences on Root: Shoot Biomass RatiosNARA Subscribed
The distribution of assimilated carbon (C) among roots, stems, and leaves is a central process in terrestrial ecosystem dynamics. Yet the biomass allocation schemes used in current global vegetation and land surface models pre‐date the existence of large plant‐trait data sets and remain largely untested. Here we formulate hypotheses on the controls of root: shoot biomass ratios (R:S), based on eco‐evolutionary optimality princ...
Soil Nitrogen Supply Exerts Largest Influence on Leaf Nitrogen in Environments with the Greatest Leaf Nitrogen DemandNARA Subscribed
Accurately representing the relationships between nitrogen supply and photosynthesis is crucial for reliably predicting carbon–nitrogen cycle coupling in Earth System Models (ESMs). Most ESMs assume positive correlations amongst soil nitrogen supply, leaf nitrogen content, and photosynthetic capacity. However, leaf photosynthetic nitrogen demand may influence the leaf nitrogen response to soil nitrogen supply; thus, responses...
Global leaf‐trait mapping based on optimality theoryNARA Subscribed
Aim Leaf traits are central to plant function, and key variables in ecosystem models. However recently published global trait maps, made by applying statistical or machine‐learning techniques to large compilations of trait and environmental data, differ substantially from one another. This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of an alternative approach, based on eco‐evolutionary optimality theory, to yield predictions of sp...
“Least‐cost theory” posits that C 3 plants should balance rates of photosynthetic water loss and carboxylation in relation to the relative acquisition and maintenance costs of resources required for these activities. Here we investigated the dependency of photosynthetic traits on climate and soil properties using a new Australia‐wide trait dataset spanning 528 species from 67 sites. We tested the hypotheses that plants on rela...
Optimality principles explaining divergent responses of alpine vegetation to environmental changeNARA Subscribed
Recent increases in vegetation greenness over much of the world reflect increasing CO 2 globally and warming in cold areas. However, the strength of the response to both CO 2 and warming in those areas appears to be declining for unclear reasons, contributing to large uncertainties in predicting how vegetation will respond to future global changes. Here, we investigated the changes of satellite‐observed peak season absorbed ph...
Vegetation responses to climate extremes recorded by remotely sensed atmospheric formaldehydeNARA Subscribed
Accurate monitoring of vegetation stress is required for better modelling and forecasting of primary production, in a world where heatwaves and droughts are expected to become increasingly prevalent. Variability in formaldehyde (HCHO) concentrations in the troposphere is dominated by local emissions of short‐lived biogenic (BVOC) and pyrogenic volatile organic compounds. BVOCs are emitted by plants in a rapid protective respon...
Global decadal variability of plant carbon isotope discrimination and its link to gross primary productionNARA Subscribed
Carbon isotope discrimination (Δ 13 C) in C 3 woody plants is a key variable for the study of photosynthesis. Yet how Δ 13 C varies at decadal scales, and across regions, and how it is related to gross primary production (GPP), are still incompletely understood. Here we address these questions by implementing a new Δ 13 C modelling capability in the land‐surface model JULES incorporating both photorespiratory and mesophyll‐con...
Impacts of soil water stress on the acclimated stomatal limitation of photosynthesis: Insights from stable carbon isotope dataNARA Subscribed
Atmospheric aridity and drought both influence physiological function in plant leaves, but their relative contributions to changes in the ratio of leaf internal to ambient partial pressure of CO 2 ( χ ) – an index of adjustments in both stomatal conductance and photosynthetic rate to environmental conditions – are difficult to disentangle. Many stomatal models predicting χ include the influence of only one of these drivers. In...
Plant respiration: Controlled by photosynthesis or biomass?NARA Subscribed
Two simplifying hypotheses have been proposed for whole‐plant respiration. One links respiration to photosynthesis; the other to biomass. Using a first‐principles carbon balance model with a prescribed live woody biomass turnover, applied at a forest research site where multidecadal measurements are available for comparison, we show that if turnover is fast the accumulation of respiring biomass is low and respiration depends p...
TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open accessNARA Subscribed
Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodivers...
Observed and modelled historical trends in the water‐use efficiency of plants and ecosystemsNARA Subscribed
Plant water‐use efficiency (WUE, the carbon gained through photosynthesis per unit of water lost through transpiration) is a tracer of the plant physiological controls on the exchange of water and carbon dioxide between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. At the leaf level, rising CO 2 concentrations tend to increase carbon uptake (in the absence of other limitations) and to reduce stomatal conductance, both effects lea...
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