Premium
Shade‐tolerance as a predictor of responses to elevated CO 2 in trees
Author(s) -
Kerstiens Gerhard
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1034/j.1399-3054.1998.1020316.x
Subject(s) - shade tolerance , biology , photosynthesis , nutrient , limiting , botany , specific leaf area , biomass (ecology) , nitrogen , biomass partitioning , horticulture , agronomy , ecology , canopy , chemistry , mechanical engineering , organic chemistry , engineering
Evidence from 10 studies comparing angiosperm trees and 5 studies comparing conifers of differing shade‐tolerance was analysed. The number of intraphyletic comparisons in which the more shade‐tolerant species showed the greater relative increase of biomass in elevated CO 2 was significantly higher than would be expected by chance alone. It is suggested that more shade‐tolerant species are inherently better disposed, in terms of plant architecture and partitioning of biomass and nitrogen, to utilise resources (light, water, nutrients) that are potentially limiting in elevated CO 2 and that these traits are responsible for the interaction between shade‐tolerance and CO 2 concentration. Compared with less shade‐tolerant angiosperm trees, more shade‐tolerant angiosperm species generally have a lower leaf area ratio in ambient CO 2 and show a smaller relative reduction in elevated CO 2 . Furthermore, leaf nitrogen content is usually lower in more shade‐tolerant angiosperm species and tends to be more strongly reduced by elevated CO 2 in those species. Within angiosperm trees, more shade‐tolerant species showed a stronger stimulation of net leaf photosynthetic rate in most experiments, but this trend was not significant.