Optimizing the Canopy Photosynthetic Rate by Patterns of Investment in Specific Leaf Mass

Gutschick, Vincent P.; Wiegel, F.W.

doi:10.1086/284838

Cited by 205 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…It increases the mesophyll conductance and decreases g s \g m , which increases WUE (see Eqn 2d). However, assimilation per mass of leaf is a modestly declining function of mass per unit area (Gutschick & Wiegel, 1988), at all magnitudes of mass per unit area. Thus, assimilation per unit mass of N declines similarly.…”

Section: Mesophyll Structure Particularly Total Mass and Nitrogen Inmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The declining investment in old leaves can be reversed (Johnston et al, 1969). This is clearly adaptive, at least for plants in which fast growth is valuable, and the patterns along the gradient of microenvironments in a canopy have been so analysed (Hirose & Werger, 1987) ; for a first-principles derivation of the optimum investment in overall mass, see Gutschick & Wiegel (1988). Accompanying the increasing mass of N per leaf area in high sunlight is an increasing partitioning to carboxylation enzymes at the expense of lightcapturing chlorophyll complexes (Cowan, 1986 ;Evans, 1989), another clearly adaptive pattern.…”

Section: Mesophyll Structure Particularly Total Mass and Nitrogen Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, even substantial deviations from the optimum bear little cost in photosynthetic performance. Gutschick & Wiegel (1988) proposed that canopies develop with a mass per unit area that is well below the optimum. The extra leaf area developable per unit mass can decrease light availability to competing plants.…”

Section: Mesophyll Structure Particularly Total Mass and Nitrogen Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biotic and abiotic consequences of differences in leaf structure

1999

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Both within and between species, leaves of plants display wide ranges in structural features. These features include : gross investments of carbon and nitrogen substrates (e.g. leaf mass per unit area) ; stomatal density, distribution between adaxial and abaxial surfaces, and aperture ; internal and external optical scattering structures ; defensive structures, such as trichomes and spines ; and defensive compounds, including UV screens, antifeedants, toxins, and silica abrasives. I offer a synthesis of selected publications, including some of my own. A unifying theme is the adaptive value of expressing certain structural features, posed as metabolic costs and benefits, for (1) competitive acquisition and use of abiotic resources (such as water, light and nitrogen) and (2) regulation of biotic interactions, particularly fungal attack and herbivory. Both acclimatory responses in one plant and adaptations over evolutionary time scales are covered where possible. The ubiquity of trade-offs in function is a recurrent theme ; this helps to explain diversity in solutions to the same environmental challenges but poses problems for investigators to uncover numerous important trade-offs. I offer some suggestions for research, such as on the need for models that integrate biotic and abiotic effects (these must be highly focused), and some speculations, such as on the intensity of selection pressures for these structures.

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Section: Mesophyll Structure Particularly Total Mass and Nitrogen Inmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Mesophyll Structure Particularly Total Mass and Nitrogen Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mesophyll Structure Particularly Total Mass and Nitrogen Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biotic and abiotic consequences of differences in leaf structure

1999

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“…Leaf dry mass per area (LMA) consistently increases with increasing irradiance (Ellsworth & Reich, 1993 ;Niinemets, 1995Niinemets, , 1997c. This is a relevant adaptive response optimizing plant carbon assimilation potentials, because high LMA enables increased carbon acquisition in high light, while low LMA enhanced light harvesting in low light, changes that collectively lead to an improvement of the carbon gain of the whole plant (Bjo$ rkman, 1981 ;Gutschick & Wiegel, 1988 ;Niinemets & Tenhunen, 1997).…”

Section: mentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy requirement for foliage formation is not constant along canopy light gradients in temperate deciduous trees

Niinemets

1999

New Phytologist

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Foliage construction cost (glucose requirement for formation of a unit foliar biomass, G, kg glu kg −" ), chemical composition and morphology were examined along a light gradient across the canopies in five deciduous species, which ranked according to increasing shade-tolerance as Populus tremula Fraxinus excelsior Tilia cordata l Corylus avellana Fagus sylvatica. Light conditions in the canopy were estimated by a hemispheric photographic technique, allowing ranking of sample locations according to long-term light input incident to the sampled leaves (relative irradiance). G and foliage carbon concentration increased with increasing relative irradiance in F. excelsior, T. cordata and C. avellana, but were independent of irradiance in F. sylvatica and P. tremula. However, if G of non-structural-carbohydrate-free dry mass was considered, it also increased with increasing relative irradiance in P. tremula. A positive correlation between the concentration of carbon-rich lignin and irradiance, probably a result of the acclimation to greater water stress at higher light, was the major reason for the lightdependence of G. Lignin concentrations were highest in more shade-tolerant species, resulting in greatest carbon concentrations in these species. Since carbon concentration and G are directly linked, the leaves of shade-tolerant species were also more expensive to construct. As the result of these effects, G increased faster with increasing leaf dry mass per area which was mainly determined by relative irradiance, in shade-tolerators. Given that shadetolerant species had lower leaf dry mass per area at common irradiance and that this saturated at lower relative irradiance than leaf dry mass per area in the intolerant species, it was concluded that enhanced energy requirements for foliage construction might constrain species morphological plasticity and the upper limit of leaf dry mass per area attainable at high light.

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“…Their analyses have investigated how nitrogen, a resource known to be related to leaf photosynthetic capacity, should be allocated within the canopy. Similarly, other analyses have studied how should the total dry mass of leaves be distributed with depth (Gutschick et al, 1988 (Rambal, 1992 (1984). The second set came from the wellknown 150-year-old Q ilex coppice of Le Rouquet in southern France (Eckardt et al, 1975 Long-term estimates of the intercellular CO 2 concentration within the leaf (C i ) were calculated by rearranging the equations originally developed by Farquhar et al (1982) as where δ 13 C air and δ 13 C leaf are the carbon isotope compositions of the air and leaf, respectively, C a is the CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere, a is the 13 C fractionation due to diffusion (4.4&permil;), and b is the net fractionation due to carboxylation (27&permil;).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%