Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities
Abstract A principal challenge in ecology is to integrate physiological function (e.g. photosynthesis) across a collection of individuals (e.g. plants of different species) to understand the functioning of the entire ensemble (e.g. primary productivity). The control that organism size exerts over ph...
Published in: | Ecology Letters |
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crwiley:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x 2024-09-30T14:31:15+00:00 Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities Kerkhoff, Andrew J. Enquist, Brian J. 2006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1461-0248.2006.00888.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ecology Letters volume 9, issue 4, page 419-427 ISSN 1461-023X 1461-0248 journal-article 2006 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x 2024-09-03T04:26:29Z Abstract A principal challenge in ecology is to integrate physiological function (e.g. photosynthesis) across a collection of individuals (e.g. plants of different species) to understand the functioning of the entire ensemble (e.g. primary productivity). The control that organism size exerts over physiological and ecological function suggests that allometry could be a powerful tool for scaling ecological processes across levels of organization. Here we use individual plant allometries to predict how nutrient content and productivity scale with total plant biomass (phytomass) in whole plant communities. As predicted by our model, net primary productivity as well as whole community nitrogen and phosphorus content all scale allometrically with phytomass across diverse plant communities, from tropical forest to arctic tundra. Importantly, productivity data deviate quantitatively from the theoretically derived prediction, and nutrient productivity (production per unit nutrient) of terrestrial plant communities decreases systematically with increasing total phytomass. These results are consistent with the existence of pronounced competitive size hierarchies. The previously undocumented generality of these ‘ecosystem allometries’ and their basis in the structure and function of individual plants will likely provide a useful quantitative framework for research linking plant traits to ecosystem processes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Tundra Wiley Online Library Arctic Ecology Letters 9 4 419 427 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
description |
Abstract A principal challenge in ecology is to integrate physiological function (e.g. photosynthesis) across a collection of individuals (e.g. plants of different species) to understand the functioning of the entire ensemble (e.g. primary productivity). The control that organism size exerts over physiological and ecological function suggests that allometry could be a powerful tool for scaling ecological processes across levels of organization. Here we use individual plant allometries to predict how nutrient content and productivity scale with total plant biomass (phytomass) in whole plant communities. As predicted by our model, net primary productivity as well as whole community nitrogen and phosphorus content all scale allometrically with phytomass across diverse plant communities, from tropical forest to arctic tundra. Importantly, productivity data deviate quantitatively from the theoretically derived prediction, and nutrient productivity (production per unit nutrient) of terrestrial plant communities decreases systematically with increasing total phytomass. These results are consistent with the existence of pronounced competitive size hierarchies. The previously undocumented generality of these ‘ecosystem allometries’ and their basis in the structure and function of individual plants will likely provide a useful quantitative framework for research linking plant traits to ecosystem processes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kerkhoff, Andrew J. Enquist, Brian J. |
spellingShingle |
Kerkhoff, Andrew J. Enquist, Brian J. Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities |
author_facet |
Kerkhoff, Andrew J. Enquist, Brian J. |
author_sort |
Kerkhoff, Andrew J. |
title |
Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities |
title_short |
Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities |
title_full |
Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities |
title_fullStr |
Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities |
title_sort |
ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1461-0248.2006.00888.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Tundra |
op_source |
Ecology Letters volume 9, issue 4, page 419-427 ISSN 1461-023X 1461-0248 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00888.x |
container_title |
Ecology Letters |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
419 |
op_container_end_page |
427 |
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1811635869965090816 |