Global variation in the fraction of leaf nitrogen allocated to photosynthesis

Luo, Xiangzhong; Keenan, Trevor F.; Chen, Jing M.; Croft, Holly; Colin Prentice, I.; Smith, Nicholas G.; Walker, Anthony P.; Wang, Han; Wang, Rong; Xu, Chonggang; Zhang, Yao

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25163-9

Title: Global variation in the fraction of leaf nitrogen allocated to photosynthesis

Journal Article · 10 August 2021 · Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25163-9 · OSTI ID:1819180

^[1];

^[2]; Chen, Jing M. ^[3]; Croft, Holly ^[4];

^[5];

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^[7]; Wang, Han ^[8]; Wang, Rong ^[3]; Xu, Chonggang ^[9];

^[2]

National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of Toronto, ON (Canada)
Univ. of Sheffield (United Kingdom)
Macquarie Univ., NSW (Australia); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Plants invest a considerable amount of leaf nitrogen in the photosynthetic enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (RuBisCO), forming a strong coupling of nitrogen and photosynthetic capacity. Variability in the nitrogen-photosynthesis relationship indicates different nitrogen use strategies of plants (i.e., the fraction nitrogen allocated to RuBisCO; fLNR), however, the reason for this remains unclear as widely different nitrogen use strategies are adopted in photosynthesis models. Here, we use a comprehensive database of in situ observations, a remote sensing product of leaf chlorophyll and ancillary climate and soil data, to examine the global distribution in fLNR using a random forest model. We find global fLNR is 18.2 ± 6.2%, with its variation largely driven by negative dependence on leaf mass per area and positive dependence on leaf phosphorus. Some climate and soil factors (i.e., light, atmospheric dryness, soil pH, and sand) have considerable positive influences on fLNR regionally. This study provides insight into the nitrogen-photosynthesis relationship of plants globally and an improved understanding of the global distribution of photosynthetic potential.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1819180

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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