HR: 17:00h
AN: B44A-04 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: The leaf economic spectrum drives litter decomposition within regional floras worldwide
AU: * Cornwell, W K
EM: wcornwell@gmail.com
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Cornelissen, J H
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Amatangelo, K
AF: Stanford University, Biological Sciences, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AU: Dorrepaal, E
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Eviner, V
AF: University of California, Davis, Plant Sciences, Davis, CA 95616, United States
AU: Godoy, O
AF: Universidad de Alcalá, Facultad de Cienceias, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
AU: Hobbie, S E
AF: University of Minnesota, Dept of Ecology, St Paul, MN 55108, United States
AU: Hoorens, B
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Kurokawa, H
AF: Landcare Research, PO Box 40, Lincoln, 7640, New Zealand
AU: Kurokawa, H
AF: Tohoku University, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
AU: Perez Harguindeguy, N
AF: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Instituto Multidisciplinario do Biología Vegetal,
Córdoba, CC495 5000, Argentina
AU: Quested, H M
AF: Stockholm University, Dept of Botany, Stockholm, S106 91, Sweden
AU: Santiago, L S
AF: University of Colifornia, Riverside, 2150 Batchelor Hall, Riverside, CA 92521, United States
AU: Wardle, D A
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Wardle, D A
AF: Landcare Research, PO Box 69, Lincoln, Lincoln, New Zealand
AU: Wright, I J
AF: Macquarie University, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
AU: Aerts, R
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Allison, S
AF: University of California, Irvine, Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Irvine, CA 92697,
United States
AU: van Bodegom, P
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Brovkin, V
AF: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Climate Systems Research Dept,
Potsdam, 14412, Germany
AU: Chatain, A
AF: Monash University, School of Biological Sciences, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
AU: Callaghan, T
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Callaghan, T
AF: Sheffield University, Dept of Animal and Plants Sciences, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United
Kingdom
AU: Díaz, S
AF: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Instituto Multidisciplinario do Biología Vegetal,
Córdoba, CC495 5000, Argentina
AU: Garnier, E
AF: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Instituto Multidisciplinario do Biología Vegetal,
Córdoba, CC495 5000, Argentina
AU: Garnier, E
AF: Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, 1919 route de Mende, Montpellier, Cedex5,
France
AU: Gurvich, D E
AF: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Instituto Multidisciplinario do Biología Vegetal,
Córdoba, CC495 5000, Argentina
AU: Kazakou, E
AF: Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, 1919 route de Mende, Montpellier, Cedex5,
France
AU: Klein, J A
AF: Colorado State University, Dept of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship, Fort
Collins, CO 80523, United States
AU: Read, J
AF: Monash University, School of Biological Sciences, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
AU: Reich, P B
AF: University of Minnesota, Department of Forest Resources, St. Paul, MN 55108, United
States
AU: Soudzilovskaia, N A
AF: Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands
AU: Soudzilovskaia, N A
AF: Moscow State University, Dept of Geobotany, Moscow, Moscow, Russian Federation
AU: Vaieretti, M V
AF: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Instituto Multidisciplinario do Biología Vegetal,
Córdoba, CC495 5000, Argentina
AU: Westoby, M
AF: Macquarie University, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
AB:
Leaves are the green machines that drive terrestrial oxygen production, carbon assimilation and primary
productivity worldwide. Some green machines are fast but short-lived producers, while others are durable enough
for steady carbon gain over the long term. The nuts and bolts of the green machinery to support fast production
versus durability are the chemical, physiological, and structural traits of the plant species that together shape the
globally operating "leaf economics spectrum". These green-leaf traits have crucial implications not only for the
production of biomass in biogeochemical cycles, but also for its subsequent fate: the litter traits inherited from the
green leaves together with the litter environment drive the rate of litter decomposition. From a global synthesis of
818 species in 66 decomposition experiments on six continents, we quantified the degree to which functional
differentiation among species affects their litter decomposition rates. For the first time at global scale, we show
that: (1) the magnitude of species-driven differences in decomposition within biomes is surprisingly large--often
greater than 10-fold (2) the decomposability of a species' litter is consistently correlated with that species'
position on the green-leaf economics spectrum: species designed to achieve a fast return on carbon invested in
leaves produce faster decomposing litter compared to those species with a slower-return strategy. These results
suggest that a shift in relative abundance of particular species traits within a biome could strongly impact overall
decomposition rates. Correctly predicting the abundance and distribution of particular plant traits will be crucial
for accurate forecasts of future carbon pools and their feedbacks to further climate change.
UR: http://www.vegfunction.net/wg/17/17_speciesdecomp.htm
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
DE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315)
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 0434 Data sets
DE: 0476 Plant ecology (1851)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting