ArticleEcology and evolution2014
The relationship of leaf photosynthetic traits - V cmax and J max - to leaf nitrogen, leaf phosphorus, and specific leaf area: a meta-analysis and modeling study.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 106 papers.
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Who cites it
106 citing papers in PubMed, 491 citations in OpenAlex.
- COPlant, cell & environment · 2026Article
- The 'Hughes constant' revisited: the unity and diversity in leaf area : fresh mass ratios within and across woody species.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Key sources of uncertainty in process-based modeling of live fuel moisture content.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Temperature Acclimation of Chlorophyll Fluorescence and Carboxylation Capacity From Near-Instantaneous to Weekly Time Scales.Plant, cell & environment · 2026Article
- Climate and Edaphic Factors Partly Explain Leaf Litterfall Rates of Species From Tropical Semi-Deciduous Ecosystems.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Atmospheric Boundary Layer Control on Forest Thermal Properties.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Phosphorus enrichment does not enlarge the predicted COProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Bigger is not always better: Optimizing leaf area index with narrow-leaf shape in soybean.Plant physiology · 2026Article
- Not just Rubisco: integrated strategies to overcome the biochemical limitations of CFrontiers in plant science · 2026Review
- Growth-stage dependent changes of leaf chlorophyll content as a proxy for photosynthetic capacity in maize.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Shortcutting photorespiration: avenues and challenges toward realizing higher-yielding photorespiratory bypass crops.The New phytologist · 2026Review
- Phosphorus constrains global photosynthesis more than nitrogen does.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Salinity and Nitrogen Availability Affect Growth, Oxalate Metabolism, and Nutritional Quality in Red Orache Baby Greens.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Global Assessment of Environmental and Plant-Trait Influences on Root: Shoot Biomass Ratios.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Rapid Physiological Trait Measurements in Wine Grape (Plant-environment interactions (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Temporal constraints on leaf-level trait plasticity for next-generation land surface models.Annals of botany · 2025Review
- Global photosynthetic capacity jointly determined by enzyme kinetics and eco-evo-environmental drivers.Fundamental research · 2025Article
- Leaf carbon nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in dominant trees across China's forests from 2005 to 2020.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Simulation of dry matter partitioning in cucumber fruits: reflecting gas exchange characteristics based on leaf position and cropping type.Horticulture research · 2025Article
- A test of ecophysiological theories on tropical forest functional traits along a VPD gradient.Communications biology · 2025Article
46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 6 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Great uncertainty exists in the global exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere. An important source of this uncertainty lies in the dependency of photosynthesis on the maximum rate of carboxylation (V cmax) and the maximum rate of electron transport (J max). Understanding and making accurate prediction of C fluxes thus requires accurate characterization of these rates and their relationship with plant nutrient status over large geographic scales. Plant nutrient status is indicated by the traits: leaf nitrogen (N), leaf phosphorus (P), and specific leaf area (SLA). Correlations between V cmax and J max and leaf nitrogen (N) are typically derived from local to global scales, while correlations with leaf phosphorus (P) and specific leaf area (SLA) have typically been derived at a local scale. Thus, there is no global-scale relationship between V cmax and J max and P or SLA limiting the ability of global-scale carbon flux models do not account for P or SLA. We gathered published data from 24 studies to reveal global relationships of V cmax and J max with leaf N, P, and SLA. V cmax was strongly related to leaf N, and increasing leaf P substantially increased the sensitivity of V cmax to leaf N. J max was strongly related to V cmax, and neither leaf N, P, or SLA had a substantial impact on the relationship. Although more data are needed to expand the applicability of the relationship, we show leaf P is a globally important determinant of photosynthetic rates. In a model of photosynthesis, we showed that at high leaf N (3 gm(-2)), increasing leaf P from 0.05 to 0.22 gm(-2) nearly doubled assimilation rates. Finally, we show that plants may employ a conservative strategy of J max to V cmax coordination that restricts photoinhibition when carboxylation is limiting at the expense of maximizing photosynthetic rates when light is limiting.
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