Ecological Archives E094-230-A3

Caroline E. Farrior, David Tilman, Ray Dybzinski, Peter B. Reich, Simon A. Levin, Stephen W. Pacala. 2013. Resource limitation in a competitive context determines complex plant responses to experimental resource additions. Ecology 94:2505–2517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/12-1548.1

Appendix C. Photosynthetic rate dependence on leaf and fine-root biomass.

FigC1

Fig. C1. Dependence of light-limited photosynthesis on leaf biomass (A) and water-limited photosynthesis on fine-root biomass (B). Because of self shading, light-limited photosynthesis has diminishing returns to leaf biomass. Water-limited photosynthesis increases proportionally with fine-root biomass and water availability (W). In the main text, we use a rainfall model in which W switches between two levels, one that gives an AW(r) that is lower than AL(l) and another that gives an AW(r) which is greater than AL(l). We define q as the proportion of time spent with the high W. Because plant will adjust their stomata to operate at AW if AW is less than AL, the yearly photosynthetic rate is A = qAL(l) + (1 – q) AW(r).


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