Leaf carbon and nitrogen stoichiometric variation along environmental gradients

Xu, Huiying; Wang, Han; Prentice, Iain Colin; Harrison, Sandy P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4511-2023

Articles | Volume 20, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4511-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4511-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 22

Research article

|

17 Nov 2023

Research article |

| 17 Nov 2023

Leaf carbon and nitrogen stoichiometric variation along environmental gradients

Huiying Xu, Han Wang, Iain Colin Prentice, and Sandy P. Harrison

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4511-2023-supplement

Data sets

The China plant trait database version 2 (https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/The_China_Plant_Trait_Database_Version_2_0/19448219) H. Wang, S. P. Harrison, M. Li, I. C. Prentice, S. Qiao, R. Wang, H. Xu, G. Mengoli, Y. Peng, and Y. Yang https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01884-4

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Short summary

Leaf carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) are crucial elements in leaf construction and physiological processes. This study reconciled the roles of phylogeny, species identity, and climate in stoichiometric traits at individual and community levels. The variations in community-level leaf N and C : N ratio were captured by optimality-based models using climate data. Our results provide an approach to improve the representation of leaf stoichiometry in vegetation models to better couple N with C cycling.