Ecosystem allometry: the scaling of nutrient stocks and primary productivity across plant communities

Ecology Letters
Andrew J Kerkhoff, Brian J Enquist

Abstract

A principal challenge in ecology is to integrate physiological function (e.g. photosynthesis) across a collection of individuals (e.g. plants of different species) to understand the functioning of the entire ensemble (e.g. primary productivity). The control that organism size exerts over physiological and ecological function suggests that allometry could be a powerful tool for scaling ecological processes across levels of organization. Here we use individual plant allometries to predict how nutrient content and productivity scale with total plant biomass (phytomass) in whole plant communities. As predicted by our model, net primary productivity as well as whole community nitrogen and phosphorus content all scale allometrically with phytomass across diverse plant communities, from tropical forest to arctic tundra. Importantly, productivity data deviate quantitatively from the theoretically derived prediction, and nutrient productivity (production per unit nutrient) of terrestrial plant communities decreases systematically with increasing total phytomass. These results are consistent with the existence of pronounced competitive size hierarchies. The previously undocumented generality of these 'ecosystem allometries' and their bas...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 14, 2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Geoffrey B WestJames H Brown
Apr 14, 2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Brian J EnquistJames H Brown
May 17, 2008·Ecology·Ethan P WhiteJessica L Green
Nov 12, 2011·Ecology·Brian J Enquist
Jul 22, 2014·Nature·Sean T MichaletzBrian J Enquist
Dec 25, 2015·Nature·Sandra DíazLucas D Gorné
May 8, 2008·Ecology·Weston H NowlinLouie H Yang
Apr 3, 2007·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Ethan P WhiteBrian J Enquist
Sep 13, 2008·Ecology Letters·James C Stegen, Ethan P White
May 20, 2015·Global Ecology and Biogeography : a Journal of Macroecology·J Sardans, J Peñuelas
Oct 9, 2008·Annals of Botany·Duncan J GreenwoodLyudmila Karawulova
Apr 14, 2017·Global Change Biology·Jordi SardansJosep Peñuelas
Mar 23, 2019·Ecology·Josep PeñuelasJordi Sardans
Oct 4, 2019·Global Change Biology·Alessio CollaltiIain Colin Prentice
Jan 18, 2019·Nature Communications·Daniel M PerkinsGabriel Yvon-Durocher
May 26, 2017·Global Change Biology·Jeffrey J KellewayNeil Saintilan
Mar 3, 2020·Frontiers in Plant Science·Göran I Ågren, Martin Weih
Oct 12, 2017·Frontiers in Plant Science·Yanpei GuoZhiyao Tang
Aug 28, 2021·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Hai-Xia DuanYou-Cai Xiong

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