Maximum CO 2 ‐assimilation rates of vascular plants on an Alaskan arctic tundra slope

• Published in: Ecography
• Main Authors: Oberbauer, Steven F., Oechel, Walter C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1989
• Subjects: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Arctic; Brooks Range; Cassiope tetragona; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.1989.tb00851.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0587.1989.tb00851.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0587.1989.tb00851.x

Light‐saturated CO 2 ‐assimilation rates of 19 vascular plant species were measured on a tundra slope in the foothills of the Brooks Range, Alaska. Maximum assimilation capacities on a leaf area basis ranged from 20.3 μmol m −2 s −1 for the forb, Bistorta plumosa , to 6.0 μmol m −2 s −1 for the evergreen, Empetrum hermaphroditicum . Graminoids, deciduous shrubs, and forbs fell within a similar range of maximum photosynthetic rates on a leaf area basis. Evergreens had the lowest rates. On a leaf weight basis, maximum assimilation rates were greatest for forbs, followed by deciduous shrubs, graminoids, and evergreens. Rates of evergreens were less than half those of all other growth forms. Cassiope tetragona had the lowest rates per unit leaf weight of any species tested; mean maximum rates of C. tetragona were only 14% of those of B. plumosa , the species with the highest rates. When the data were subjected to canonical analysis, only a partial correspondence was found between species growth form and photosynthetic characteristics.