Article Dans Une Revue New Phytologist Année : 2025

Vertical canopy gradients of respiration drive plant carbon budgets and leaf area index

Résumé

Despite its importance for determining global carbon fluxes, leaf respiration remains poorly constrained in land surface models (LSMs). We tested the sensitivity of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model Land Model -Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (ELM-FATES) to variation in the canopy gradients of leaf maintenance respiration (R dark ). We ran global and point simulations varying the canopy gradient of R dark to explore the impacts on forest structure, composition, and carbon cycling. In global simulations, steeper canopy gradients of R dark lead to increased understory survival and leaf biomass. Leaf area index (LAI) increased up to 77% in tropical regions compared with the default parameterization, improving alignment with remotely sensed benchmarks. Global vegetation carbon varied from 308 Pg C to 449 Pg C across the ensemble. In tropical forest simulations, steeper gradients of R dark had a large impact on successional dynamics. Results show the importance of canopy gradients in leaf traits and fluxes for determining plant carbon budgets and emergent ecosystem properties such as competitive dynamics, LAI, and vegetation carbon. The high-model sensitivity to canopy gradients in R dark highlights the need for more observations of how leaf traits and fluxes vary along light micro-environments to inform critical dynamics in LSMs.

Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Needham et al 2025.pdf (3.14 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Licence

Dates et versions

hal-05271939 , version 1 (22-09-2025)

Licence

Identifiants

Citer

Jessica F Needham, Sharmila Dey, Charles D Koven, Rosie A Fisher, Ryan G Knox, et al.. Vertical canopy gradients of respiration drive plant carbon budgets and leaf area index. New Phytologist, 2025, 246, pp.144 - 157. ⟨10.1111/nph.20423⟩. ⟨hal-05271939⟩
88 Consultations
74 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

  • More