Interspecific prediction of photosynthetic light response curves using specific leaf mass and leaf nitrogen content: effects of differences in soil fertility and growth irradiance

Abstract

Previous work has shown that the entire photosynthetic light response curve, based on both Mitscherlich and Michaelis-Menten functions, could be predicted in an interspecific context through allometric relations linking the parameters of these functions to two static leaf traits: leaf nitrogen (N) content and leaf mass per area (LMA). This paper describes to what extent these allometric relations are robust to changes in soil fertility and the growth irradiance of the plants. Plants of 25 herbaceous species were grown under controlled conditions in factorial combinations of low/high soil fertility and low/high growth irradiance. Net photosynthetic rates per unit dry mass were measured at light intensities ranging from 0 to 700 µmol m(-2) s(-1) photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). The differing growth environments induced large changes in N, LMA and in each of the parameter estimates of the Mitscherlich and Michaelis-Menten functions. However, the differing growth environments induced only small (although significant) changes in the allometric relationships linking N and LMA to the parameters of the two functions. As a result, 88 % (Mitcherlich) and 89 % (Michaelis-Menten) of the observed net photosynthetic rates over the full range of light intensities (0-700 µmol m(-2) s(-1) PAR) and across all four growth environments could be predicted using only N and LMA using the same allometric relations. These results suggest the possibility of predicting net photosynthetic rates in nature across species over the full range of light intensities using readily available data.