Open AccessEffects of biotic and abiotic factors on forest biomass fractions
Author(s) -
Renfei Chen,
Jinzhi Ran,
Weigang Hu,
Longwei Dong,
Mingfei Ji,
Xin Jia,
Jingli Lu,
Haiyang Gong,
Muhammad Aqeel,
Shuran Yao,
Lizhe An,
JinSheng He,
Karl J. Niklas,
Jianming Deng
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
national science review/national science review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.433
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 2095-5138
pISSN - 2053-714X
DOI - 10.1093/nsr/nwab025
Subject(s) - abiotic component , biomass (ecology) , biotic component , shoot , environmental science , ecology , biology , biomass partitioning , precipitation , resistance (ecology) , botany , geography , meteorology
The extent to which key factors at the global scale influence plant biomass allocation patterns remains unclear. Here, we provide a theory about how biotic and abiotic factors influence plant biomass allocation and evaluate its predictions using a large global database for forested communities. Our analyses confirm theoretical predictions that temperature, precipitation, and plant height and density jointly regulate the quotient of leaf biomass and total biomass, and that they have a much weaker effect on shoot (leaf plus stem) biomass fractions at a global scale. Moreover, biotic factors have larger effects than abiotic factors. Climatic variables act equally on shoot and root growth, and differences in plant body size and age, as well as community species composition, which vary with climate in ways that drown out the variations in biomass fractions. The theory and data presented here provide mechanistic explanations of why climate has little effect on biomass fractions.