Combining diverse data for the quantification of terrestrial carbon and nitrogen allocations

Plants not only acquire carbon to sustain biomass production, autotrophic respiration, and the production of non-structural compounds, but also require nitrogen to support carboxylation and growth. However, available observations have not fully been integrated and used for modelling growth, carbon allocation to different compartments, and how different compartments’ nitrogen-to-carbon ratio vary across large climatic and soil gradients. This leaves substantial uncertainty in estimates of the global distribution of growth and nitrogen uptake by plants.

 

Here, we used the P-model, a first principles-derived and remote sensing-driven model for terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) to simulate the global distribution of GPP. Using comprehensive datasets with locally measured covariates for climatic and edaphic conditions and vegetation structure, we modelled the fractional allocation of GPP to biomass production (BP), aboveground net primary production (ANPP), and leaf NPP based on linear mixed-effects regression models. We defined BP as the sum of NPP in leaves, wood and roots. It thus does not include additional components such as exudates and labile carbon to mycorrhizae. Leaf nitrogen-to-carbon was modelled based on the maximum rate of carboxylation at 25 degrees Celsius (V_cmax25) and leaf mass per area (LMA). We then used global gridded data for the covariates that entered as predictors in site-level empirical models to simulate global C and N allocated to each component. We finally validated our global simulation results with an extended set of globally distributed GPP, BP and nitrogen-to-carbon ratio observations.

 

GPP was well predicted (R² = 0.61). In forests, ratios of BP/GPP and ANPP/GPP decreased with soil C/N and stand-age but increased with humidity and with the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR). The ratio of leaf NPP to ANPP, increased with light availability and growth temperature, but decreased with vapor pressure deficit. Leaf nitrogen-to-carbon ratio was positively related to the ratio of V_cmax25 to LMA. Leaf nitrogen resorption efficiency (NRE) was increased in drier and colder environments. Through our data validation at the end, we have shown a prediction for NPP (R² = 0.26), ANPP (R² = 0.28), leaf NPP (R² = 0.39), NRE (R² = 0.30), leaf N/C (R² = 0.26) and leaf N flux (R² = 0.35).

 

Simulated global total GPP is 125 Pg C yr^-1. Based on these statistical models, global mean carbon-use-efficiency (BP/GPP) was estimated to be 40%. The ratio of ANPP/BP was 72%, and ANPP was further split with 46% to leaf NPP and 54% to wood NPP. Simulated global total nitrogen acquisition (total of uptake from the soil and symbiotic N fixation) was 860 Tg N yr^-1. Growth in the leaf, wood and root compartment accounted for 39%, 23% and 38% of global N acquisition, respectively. We suggest that plant adaptations result in higher ANPP, leaf NPP and finally leaf N flux under warmer, wetter, more abundant light and N-rich soil conditions, which aims to support higher rate of photosynthesis with greater nitrogen investment in the leaf.