ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Legumes are different: Leaf nitrogen, photosynthesis, and water use efficiency.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 260 citations in OpenAlex.
- Biomass partitioning of plants under soil pollution stress.Communications biology · 2022Pooled it
- Spatially refined satellite gravimetry captures human signatures in global terrestrial water storage trends.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Soil fertility controls on tropical forest productivity and mortality: synthesis and roadmap.The New phytologist · 2026Review
- Start, speed, and direction of secondary forest succession.Science advances · 2026Article
- Ecological niches and biogeography of nitrogen-fixing plants in Europe.Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany) · 2026Article
- Soil microbiota promote the success of the perennial legume Lupinus polyphyllus more strongly in invasive than in native populations.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- Water-Use Efficiency and Mineral Nutrition of Diverse Legume Species Nodulated by Different Native Rhizobial Isolates: Do Rhizobia Have a Say in the Mineral Nutrition of Their Host Plants?Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Multidimensional Recovery of Young Secondary Forests in Human-Modified Tropical Landscapes.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Terrestrial ecosystem nitrogen cycling in response to field warming: Global patterns and future trends.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Exploring symbiotic legume-rhizobia relationships across tropical species.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Article
- Interspecific variation of functional traits in saplings of three Amazonian species under drought stress and recovery.AoB PLANTS · 2026Article
- Cell wall thickness constrains photosynthesis of coexisting species in a subtropical plantation by reducing mesophyll conductance and maximum carboxylation rate.Tree physiology · 2025Article
- Comparison of Physiological Characteristics of Pea (Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Grassland Management Affects Plant Leaf Nutrients Under Ambient and Future Climate.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Responses ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Genomic and Physiological Basis of Structural and Foliar Trait Variation in Tropical SpeciesEvolutionary applications · 2025Article
- From nitrogen addition to productivity: above-belowground mechanisms and nonlinear thresholds in Grasslands.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Review
- Patterns and Mechanisms of Legume Responses to Nitrogen Enrichment: A Global Meta-Analysis.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Exploring the complexity of genome size reduction in angiosperms.Plant molecular biology · 2024Review
- Genotypic variation in resource exchange, use, and production traits in the legume-rhizobia mutualism.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Using robust, pairwise comparisons and a global dataset, we show that nitrogen concentration per unit leaf mass for nitrogen-fixing plants (N2FP; mainly legumes plus some actinorhizal species) in nonagricultural ecosystems is universally greater (43-100%) than that for other plants (OP). This difference is maintained across Koppen climate zones and growth forms and strongest in the wet tropics and within deciduous angiosperms. N2FP mostly show a similar advantage over OP in nitrogen per leaf area (Narea), even in arid climates, despite diazotrophy being sensitive to drought. We also show that, for most N2FP, carbon fixation by photosynthesis (Asat) and stomatal conductance (gs) are not related to Narea-in distinct challenge to current theories that place the leaf nitrogen-Asat relationship at the center of explanations of plant fitness and competitive ability. Among N2FP, only forbs displayed an Narea-gs relationship similar to that for OP, whereas intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi; Asat/gs) was positively related to Narea for woody N2FP. Enhanced foliar nitrogen (relative to OP) contributes strongly to other evolutionarily advantageous attributes of legumes, such as seed nitrogen and herbivore defense. These alternate explanations of clear differences in leaf N between N2FP and OP have significant implications (e.g., for global models of carbon fluxes based on relationships between leaf N and Asat). Combined, greater WUE and leaf nitrogen-in a variety of forms-enhance fitness and survival of genomes of N2FP, particularly in arid and semiarid climates.
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