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Global Biogeochemical Cycles (global + biogeochemical_cycle)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Life Sciences100%
Distribution within Life Sciences
Ecology & Organismal Biology50%

Selected Abstracts

Linking the global carbon cycle to individual metabolism

FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2005
A. P. ALLEN
Summary 1We present a model that yields ecosystem-level predictions of the flux, storage and turnover of carbon in three important pools (autotrophs, decomposers, labile soil C) based on the constraints of body size and temperature on individual metabolic rate. 2The model predicts a 10 000-fold increase in C turnover rates moving from tree- to phytoplankton-dominated ecosystems due to the size dependence of photosynthetic rates. 3The model predicts a 16-fold increase in rates controlled by respiration (e.g. decomposition, turnover of labile soil C and microbial biomass) over the temperature range 0,30 °C due to the temperature dependence of ATP synthesis in respiratory complexes. 4The model predicts only a fourfold increase in rates controlled by photosynthesis (e.g. net primary production, litter fall, fine root turnover) over the temperature range 0,30 °C due to the temperature dependence of Rubisco carboxylation in chloroplasts. 5The difference between the temperature dependence of respiration and photosynthesis yields quantitative predictions for distinct phenomena that include acclimation of plant respiration, geographic gradients in labile C storage, and differences between the short- and long-term temperature dependence of whole-ecosystem CO2 flux. 6These four sets of model predictions were tested using global compilations of data on C flux, storage and turnover in ecosystems. 7Results support the hypothesis that the combined effects of body size and temperature on individual metabolic rate impose important constraints on the global C cycle. The model thus provides a synthetic, mechanistic framework for linking global biogeochemical cycles to cellular-, individual- and community-level processes. [source]

Earliest rooting system and root : shoot ratio from a new Zosterophyllum plant

NEW PHYTOLOGIST, Issue 1 2010
Shougang Hao
Summary ,,The enhanced chemical weathering by rooted vascular plants during the Silurian,Devonian period played a crucial role in altering global biogeochemical cycles and atmospheric environments; however, the documentation of early root morphology and physiology is scarce because the existing fossils are mostly incomplete. ,,Here, we report an entire, uprooted specimen of a new Zosterophyllum Penhallow, named as Z. shengfengense, from the Early Devonian Xitun Formation (Lochkovian, c. 413 Myr old) of Yunnan, south China. This plant has the most ancient known record of a rooting system. ,,The plant consists of aerial axes of 98 mm in height, showing a tufted habit, and a rhizome bearing a fibrous-like rooting system, c. 20 mm in length. The rhizome shows masses of branchings, which produce upwardly directed aerial axes and downwardly directed root-like axes. ,,The completeness of Z. shengfengense made it possible to estimate the biomass allocation and root : shoot ratio. The root : shoot ratio of this early plant is estimated at a mean value of 0.028, and the root-like axes constitute only c. 3% of the total biomass. Zosterophyllum shengfengense was probably a semi-aquatic plant with efficient water use or a strong uptake capacity of the root-like axes. [source]

Toward a stoichiometric framework for evolutionary biology

OIKOS, Issue 1 2005
Adam D. Kay
Ecological stoichiometry, the study of the balance of energy and materials in living systems, may serve as a useful synthetic framework for evolutionary biology. Here, we review recent work that illustrates the power of a stoichiometric approach to evolution across multiple scales, and then point to important open questions that may chart the way forward in this new field. At the molecular level, stoichiometry links hereditary changes in the molecular composition of organisms to key phenotypic functions. At the level of evolutionary ecology, a simultaneous focus on the energetic and material underpinnings of evolutionary tradeoffs and transactions highlights the relationship between the cost of resource acquisition and the functional consequences of biochemical composition. At the macroevolutionary level, a stoichiometric perspective can better operationalize models of adaptive radiation and escalation, and elucidate links between evolutionary innovation and the development of global biogeochemical cycles. Because ecological stoichiometry focuses on the interaction of energetic and multiple material currencies, it should provide new opportunities for coupling evolutionary dynamics across scales from genomes to the biosphere. [source]

Long-term growth of soybean at elevated [CO2] does not cause acclimation of stomatal conductance under fully open-air conditions

PLANT CELL & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 9 2006
ANDREW D. B. LEAKEY
ABSTRACT Accurately predicting plant function and global biogeochemical cycles later in this century will be complicated if stomatal conductance (gs) acclimates to growth at elevated [CO2], in the sense of a long-term alteration of the response of gs to [CO2], humidity (h) and/or photosynthetic rate (A). If so, photosynthetic and stomatal models will require parameterization at each growth [CO2] of interest. Photosynthetic acclimation to long-term growth at elevated [CO2] occurs frequently. Acclimation of gs has rarely been examined, even though stomatal density commonly changes with growth [CO2]. Soybean was grown under field conditions at ambient [CO2] (378 µmol mol,1) and elevated [CO2] (552 µmol mol,1) using free-air [CO2] enrichment (FACE). This study tested for stomatal acclimation by parameterizing and validating the widely used Ball et al. model (1987, Progress in Photosynthesis Research, vol IV, 221,224) with measurements of leaf gas exchange. The dependence of gs on A, h and [CO2] at the leaf surface was unaltered by long-term growth at elevated [CO2]. This suggests that the commonly observed decrease in gs under elevated [CO2] is due entirely to the direct instantaneous effect of [CO2] on gs and that there is no longer-term acclimation of gs independent of photosynthetic acclimation. The model accurately predicted gs for soybean growing under ambient and elevated [CO2] in the field. Model parameters under ambient and elevated [CO2] were indistinguishable, demonstrating that stomatal function under ambient and elevated [CO2] could be modelled without the need for parameterization at each growth [CO2]. [source]