Mixed-Power Scaling of Whole-Plant Respiration from Seedlings to Giant Trees

Mixed-Power Scaling of Whole-Plant Respiration from Seedlings to Giant Trees

The scaling of respiratory metabolism with body mass is one of the most pervasive phenomena in biology. Using a single allometric equation to characterize empirical scaling relationships and to evaluate alternative hypotheses about mechanisms has been controversial. We developed a method to directly...

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Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 107; no. 4; pp. 1447 - 1451
Main Authors: Mori, Shigeta, Yamaji, Keiko, Ishida, Atsushi, Prokushkin, Stanislav G., Masyagina, Oxana V., Hagihara, Akio, Hoque, A. T. M. Rafiqul, Suwa, Rempei, Osawa, Akira, Nishizono, Tomohiro, Ueda, Tatsushiro, Kinjo, Masaru, Miyagi, Tsuyoshi, Kajimoto, Takuya, Koike, Takayoshi, Matsuura, Yojiro, Toma, Takeshi, Zyryanova, Olga A., Abaimov, Anatoly P., Awaya, Yoshio, Araki, Masatake G., Kawasaki, Tatsuro, Chiba, Yukihiro, Umai, Marjnah, Brown, James Hemphill
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 26-01-2010
National Acad Sciences
Subjects:
Aerial parts
Biological Sciences
Biomass
Botany - methods
Forest trees
Forestry research
Gases - analysis
Gases - metabolism
Mathematical functions
Metabolism
Photosynthesis
Plant growth
Plant roots
Plant Transpiration
Plants
Respiration
Seedlings
Seedlings - chemistry
Seedlings - physiology
Seeds
Trees
Trees - chemistry
Trees - physiology
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Summary:The scaling of respiratory metabolism with body mass is one of the most pervasive phenomena in biology. Using a single allometric equation to characterize empirical scaling relationships and to evaluate alternative hypotheses about mechanisms has been controversial. We developed a method to directly measure respiration of 271 whole plants, spanning nine orders of magnitude in body mass, from small seedlings to large trees, and from tropical to boreal ecosystems. Our measurements include the roots, which have often been ignored. Rather than a single power-law relationship, our data are fit by a biphasic, mixed-power function. The allometric exponent varies continuously from 1 in the smallest plants to 3/4 in larger saplings and Jtrees. Therefore, our findings support the recent findings of Reich et al. [Reich PB, Tjoelker MG, Machado JL, Oleksyn J (2006) Universal scaling of respiratory metabolism, size, and nitrogen in plants. Nature 439: 457-461] and West, Brown, and Enquist [West GB, Brown JH, Enquist BJ (1997) A general model for the origin of allometric scaling laws in biology. Science 276: 122 -126.]. The transition from linear to 3/4-power scaling may indicate fundamental physical and physiological constraints on the allocation of plant biomass between photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic organs over the course of ontogenetic plant growth.
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Edited by James Hemphill Brown, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, and approved November 13, 2009 (received for review March 16, 2009)
Author contributions: S.M. and K.Y. designed research; S.M., K.Y., A.I., S.G.P., O.V.M., A.H., A.T.M.R.H., R.S., A.O., M.K., T.M., T. Kajimoto, T. Koike, Y.M., T.T., O.A.Z., A.P.A., Y.A., M.G.A., T. Kawasaki, Y.C., and M.U. performed research; S.M. and T.U. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.M., A.H., A.O., and T.N. analyzed data; and S.M. and A.H. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0902554107