title: Plant Thermoregulation: Energetics, Trait-Environment Interactions, and Carbon Economics.
abstract: Building a more predictive trait-based ecology requires mechanistic theory based on first principles. We present a general theoretical approach to link traits and climate. We use plant leaves to show how energy budgets (i) provide a foundation for understanding thermoregulation, (ii) explain mechanisms driving trait variation across environmental gradients, and (iii) guide selection on functional traits via carbon economics. Although plants are often considered to be poikilotherms, the data suggest that they are instead limited homeotherms. Leaf functional traits that promote limited homeothermy are adaptive because homeothermy maximizes instantaneous and lifetime carbon gain. This theory provides a process-based foundation for trait-climate analyses and shows that future studies should consider plant (not only air) temperatures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS J495, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. Electronic address: michaletz@lanl.gov.
authors.forename: Sean T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Michaletz
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, EEB Graduate Program, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73069, USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Weiser
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics, and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA; State Key Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Earth Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94270, USA.
authors.forename: Jizhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, EEB Graduate Program, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73069, USA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Republic of Panama.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaspari
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Brent R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Helliker
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; The Santa Fe Institute, USA, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA; The iPlant Collaborative, Thomas W. Keating Bioresearch Building, 1657 East Helen Street, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, 100 Puppy Smith Street, Aspen, CO 81611, USA.
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Enquist
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism*; D002980:Climate; D063245:Plant Development; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000502:physiology; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon