Foliar morphology and canopy nitrogen as predictors of light-use efficiency in terrestrial vegetation

The net primary productivity (NPP) of a plant community is often positively and linearly related to the amount of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by its canopy (APAR). The slope of this relationship is governed by the efficiency ( e )o f APAR use in biomass production (NPP = APAR×e). This intuitive model offers a promising means of generating large-scale NPP estimates, but its utility is compromised by our inability to explain considerable differences in e across species, functional groups, and environments. Using data from the literature, we examined the possibility that variation in e was governed largely by two chemical and morphological characteristics of the vegetation, canopy nitrogen content ( Ncanopy) and the canopy average for leaf mass per unit area (Marea). Specifically, we hypothesized that e was positively related to the quotient of Ncanopy (adjusted for the fraction of incident PAR absorbed by the canopy, fPAR ) and Marea. This e index accounts for the dependence of light utilization on the quantity of photosynthetic “machinery” ( Ncanopy) and its inherent efficiency, which is inversely related to Marea. Across a wide array of C3 species, functional groups and environments, e (based on aboveground NPP) was strongly and positively related to [Ncanopy/fPAR ]/Marea (r 2 = 0.85, P< 0.0001). Adoption of the index as a basis for estimating e could improve APAR-based predictions of terrestrial NPP, agricultural crop yield and vegetation responses to global change. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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