ABSTRACT Accurately representing the relationships between nitrogen supply and photosynthesis is crucial for reliably predicting carbon–nitrogen cycle coupling in Earth System Models (ESMs). Most ESMs assume positive correlations amongst soil nitrogen supply, leaf nitrogen content, and photosynthetic capacity. However, leaf photosynthetic nitrogen demand may influence the leaf nitrogen response to soil nitrogen supply; thus, responses to nitrogen supply are expected to be the largest in environments where demand is the greatest. Using a nutrient addition experiment replicated across 26 sites spanning four continents, we demonstrated that climate variables were stronger predictors of leaf nitrogen content than soil nutrient supply. Leaf nitrogen increased more strongly with soil nitrogen supply in regions with the highest theoretical leaf nitrogen demand, increasing more in colder and drier environments than warmer and wetter environments. Thus, leaf nitrogen responses to nitrogen supply are primarily influenced by climatic gradients in photosynthetic nitrogen demand, an insight that could improve ESM predictions.
more »
« less
Exploring the Role of Cryptic Nitrogen Fixers in Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Frontier in Nitrogen Cycling Research
More Like this
-
-
We studied luminescence accompanied by an injection of nitrogen–krypton–helium gas mixtures after passing radiofrequency discharge into dense cold helium gas. In the cold helium gas N2–Kr nanoclusters were formed, with a core of Kr atoms and N2 molecules on the surface. Atomic nitrogen and oxygen resided in the N2 surface layers. When the temperature in the observation zone was in the range of 20–36 K, we observed enhanced emission of oxygen atom β-group and molecular nitrogen Vegard–Kaplan bands from N2–Kr nanoclusters. At these temperatures, nitrogen atoms efficiently recombine on the surface of nanoclusters with the formation of exited nitrogen molecules, leading to enhanced emission of Vegard–Kaplan bands. Simultaneously, the energy transfer from exited nitrogen molecules to the oxygen atoms enhanced O atom β-group emission.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

