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Scaling leaf respiration with nitrogen and phosphorus in tropical forests across two continents

Leaf dark respiration (R (dark)) represents an important component controlling the carbon balance in tropical forests. Here, we test how nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) affect R (dark) and its relationship with photosynthesis using three widely separated tropical forests which differ in soil fertili...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rowland, Lucy, Zaragoza‐Castells, Joana, Bloomfield, Keith J., Turnbull, Matthew H., Bonal, Damien, Burban, Benoit, Salinas, Norma, Cosio, Eric, Metcalfe, Daniel J., Ford, Andrew, Phillips, Oliver L., Atkin, Owen K., Meir, Patrick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5412872/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27159833
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.13992
Descripción
Sumario:Leaf dark respiration (R (dark)) represents an important component controlling the carbon balance in tropical forests. Here, we test how nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) affect R (dark) and its relationship with photosynthesis using three widely separated tropical forests which differ in soil fertility. R (dark) was measured on 431 rainforest canopy trees, from 182 species, in French Guiana, Peru and Australia. The variation in R (dark) was examined in relation to leaf N and P content, leaf structure and maximum photosynthetic rates at ambient and saturating atmospheric CO (2) concentration. We found that the site with the lowest fertility (French Guiana) exhibited greater rates of R (dark) per unit leaf N, P and photosynthesis. The data from Australia, for which there were no phylogenetic overlaps with the samples from the South American sites, yielded the most distinct relationships of R (dark) with the measured leaf traits. Our data indicate that no single universal scaling relationship accounts for variation in R (dark) across this large biogeographical space. Variability between sites in the absolute rates of R (dark) and the R (dark) : photosynthesis ratio were driven by variations in N‐ and P‐use efficiency, which were related to both taxonomic and environmental variability.