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Global convergence in leaf respiration from estimates of thermal acclimation across time and space
Author(s) -
Vanderwel Mark C.,
Slot Martijn,
Lichstein Jeremy W.,
Reich Peter B.,
Kattge Jens,
Atkin Owen K.,
Bloomfield Keith J.,
Tjoelker Mark G.,
Kitajima Kaoru
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.13417
Subject(s) - acclimatization , respiration , atmospheric sciences , null model , variation (astronomy) , environmental science , global warming , climate change , seasonality , phenology , mean radiant temperature , biology , ecology , botany , physics , astrophysics
Summary Recent compilations of experimental and observational data have documented global temperature‐dependent patterns of variation in leaf dark respiration ( R ), but it remains unclear whether local adjustments in respiration over time (through thermal acclimation) are consistent with the patterns in R found across geographical temperature gradients. We integrated results from two global empirical syntheses into a simple temperature‐dependent respiration framework to compare the measured effects of respiration acclimation‐over‐time and variation‐across‐space to one another, and to a null model in which acclimation is ignored. Using these models, we projected the influence of thermal acclimation on: seasonal variation in R ; spatial variation in mean annual R across a global temperature gradient; and future increases in R under climate change. The measured strength of acclimation‐over‐time produces differences in annual R across spatial temperature gradients that agree well with global variation‐across‐space. Our models further project that acclimation effects could potentially halve increases in R (compared with the null model) as the climate warms over the 21st Century. Convergence in global temperature‐dependent patterns of R indicates that physiological adjustments arising from thermal acclimation are capable of explaining observed variation in leaf respiration at ambient growth temperatures across the globe.