Evidence of a general 2/3-power law of scaling leaf nitrogen to phosphorus among major plant groups and biomes

被引:277
作者
Reich, Peter B. [1 ]
Oleksyn, Jacek [1 ,2 ]
Wright, Ian J. [3 ]
Niklas, Karl J. [4 ]
Hedin, Lars [5 ]
Elser, James J. [6 ]
机构
[1] Univ Minnesota, Dept Forest Resources, St Paul, MN 55108 USA
[2] Polish Acad Sci, Inst Dendrol, PL-62035 Kornik, Poland
[3] Macquarie Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
[4] Cornell Univ, Dept Plant Biol, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA
[5] Princeton Univ, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA
[6] Arizona State Univ, Sch Life Sci, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
metabolism; stoichiometry; global scaling; growth rate hypothesis; N-P STOICHIOMETRY; GROWTH; ALLOMETRY; FORESTS; RATIOS; TEMPERATURE; ECOSYSTEMS; LIMITATION; STRATEGIES; NUTRITION;
D O I
10.1098/rspb.2009.1818
中图分类号
Q [生物科学];
学科分类号
090105 [作物生产系统与生态工程];
摘要
Scaling relations among plant traits are both cause and consequence of processes at organ-to-ecosystem scales. The relationship between leaf nitrogen and phosphorus is of particular interest, as both elements are essential for plant metabolism; their limited availabilities often constrain plant growth, and general relations between the two have been documented. Herein, we use a comprehensive dataset of more than 9300 observations of approximately 2500 species from 70 countries to examine the scaling of leaf nitrogen to phosphorus within and across taxonomical groups and biomes. Power law exponents derived from log-log scaling relations were near 2/3 for all observations pooled, for angiosperms and gymnosperms globally, and for angiosperms grouped by biomes, major functional groups, orders or families. The uniform 2/3 scaling of leaf nitrogen to leaf phosphorus exists along a parallel continuum of rising nitrogen, phosphorus, specific leaf area, photosynthesis and growth, as predicted by stoichiometric theory which posits that plants with high growth rates require both high allocation of phosphorus-rich RNA and a high metabolic rate to support the energy demands of macromolecular synthesis. The generality of this finding supports the view that this stoichiometric scaling relationship and the mechanisms that underpin it are foundational components of the living world. Additionally, although abundant variance exists within broad constraints, these results also support the idea that surprisingly simple rules regulate leaf form and function in terrestrial ecosystems.
引用
收藏
页码:877 / 883
页数:7
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