title: Convergence in the temperature response of leaf respiration across biomes and plant functional types.
abstract: Plant respiration constitutes a massive carbon flux to the atmosphere, and a major control on the evolution of the global carbon cycle. It therefore has the potential to modulate levels of climate change due to the human burning of fossil fuels. Neither current physiological nor terrestrial biosphere models adequately describe its short-term temperature response, and even minor differences in the shape of the response curve can significantly impact estimates of ecosystem carbon release and/or storage. Given this, it is critical to establish whether there are predictable patterns in the shape of the respiration-temperature response curve, and thus in the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of respiration across the globe. Analyzing measurements in a comprehensive database for 231 species spanning 7 biomes, we demonstrate that temperature-dependent increases in leaf respiration do not follow a commonly used exponential function. Instead, we find a decelerating function as leaves warm, reflecting a declining sensitivity to higher temperatures that is remarkably uniform across all biomes and plant functional types. Such convergence in the temperature sensitivity of leaf respiration suggests that there are universally applicable controls on the temperature response of plant energy metabolism, such that a single new function can predict the temperature dependence of leaf respiration for global vegetation. This simple function enables straightforward description of plant respiration in the land-surface components of coupled earth system models. Our cross-biome analyses shows significant implications for such fluxes in cold climates, generally projecting lower values compared with previous estimates.
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543;
authors.forename: Mary A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Heskel
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Animal and Plant Sciences, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Odhran S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.affiliation: Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia; Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108;
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.affiliation: Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia;
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Tjoelker
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, 20400 Sri Lanka;
authors.forename: Lasantha K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Weerasinghe
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;
authors.forename: Aurore
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Penillard
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;
authors.forename: John J G
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Egerton
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia;
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Creek
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;
authors.forename: Keith J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Bloomfield
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;
authors.forename: Jen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford University, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sinca
authors.affiliation: Umeå Plant Science Centre, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umea, Sweden;
authors.forename: Zsofia R
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Stangl
authors.affiliation: Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martinez-de la Torre
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Environment Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964; Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027;
authors.forename: Kevin L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.affiliation: Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huntingford
authors.affiliation: Umeå Plant Science Centre, Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden;
authors.forename: Vaughan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hurry
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meir
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Matthew H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Turnbull
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Owen.Atkin@anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Owen K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Atkin
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000502:physiology*; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism; D019069:Cell Respiration / Q000502:physiology*; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism*; D014197:Trees / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide
keywords: Q10; carbon exchange; climate models; temperature sensitivity; thermal response