Deciphering the variability of leaf phosphorus‐allocation strategies using leaf economic traits and reflectance spectroscopy across diverse forest types

Allocation of leaf phosphorus (P) among different functional fractions represents a crucial adaptive strategy for optimizing P use. However, it remains challenging to monitor the variability in leaf P fractions and, ultimately, to understand P-use strategies across diverse plant communities. We explored relationships between five leaf P fractions (orthophosphate P, P<sub>i</sub>; lipid P, P<sub>L</sub>; nucleic acid P, P<sub>N</sub>; metabolite P, P<sub>M</sub>; and residual P, P<sub>R</sub>) and 11 leaf economic traits of 58 woody species from three biomes in China, including temperate, subtropical and tropical forests. Then, we developed trait-based models and spectral models for leaf P fractions and compared their predictive abilities. We found that plants exhibiting conservative strategies increased the proportions of P<sub>N</sub> and P<sub>M</sub>, but decreased the proportions of P<sub>i</sub> and P<sub>L</sub>, thus enhancing photosynthetic P-use efficiency, especially under P limitation. Spectral models outperformed trait-based models in predicting cross-site leaf P fractions, regardless of concentrations (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.50-0.88 vs 0.34-0.74) or proportions (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.43-0.70 vs 0.06-0.45). These findings enhance our understanding of leaf P-allocation strategies and highlight reflectance spectroscopy as a promising alternative for characterizing large-scale leaf P fractions and plant P-use strategies, which could ultimately improve the physiological representation of the plant P cycle in land surface models.

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Publication Details

Journal
New Phytologist
Published
2025-05-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70219
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.42

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article

Deciphering the variability of leaf phosphorus‐allocation strategies using leaf economic traits and reflectance spectroscopy across diverse forest types

Julien Lamour, Nicholas G. Smith, Nathan G. Swenson, Philip A. Townsend et al.
4 citations
New Phytologist
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
4.42
article

Deciphering the variability of leaf phosphorus‐allocation strategies using leaf economic traits and reflectance spectroscopy across diverse forest types

Julien Lamour, Nicholas G. Smith, Nathan G. Swenson, Philip A. Townsend, Hans Lambers, Josep Peñuelas, Nan Yang, Jin Wu, Yue Shi, Zhengbing Yan, Yuki Tsujii, Peter B. Reich, Mingkai Jiang, Jordi Sardans, Fengqi Wu, Shuwen Liu, Jinlong Dong, Wenxuan Han, Shawn Paul Serbin, Xiaojuan Liu, Zhihui Wang, Tingting Dong, Yan Li, Di Tian, Guanhua Dai, Weiying Xu
article en
4 citations

Abstract

Allocation of leaf phosphorus (P) among different functional fractions represents a crucial adaptive strategy for optimizing P use. However, it remains challenging to monitor the variability in leaf P fractions and, ultimately, to understand P-use strategies across diverse plant communities. We explored relationships between five leaf P fractions (orthophosphate P, P<sub>i</sub>; lipid P, P<sub>L</sub>; nucleic acid P, P<sub>N</sub>; metabolite P, P<sub>M</sub>; and residual P, P<sub>R</sub>) and 11 leaf economic traits of 58 woody species from three biomes in China, including temperate, subtropical and tropical forests. Then, we developed trait-based models and spectral models for leaf P fractions and compared their predictive abilities. We found that plants exhibiting conservative strategies increased the proportions of P<sub>N</sub> and P<sub>M</sub>, but decreased the proportions of P<sub>i</sub> and P<sub>L</sub>, thus enhancing photosynthetic P-use efficiency, especially under P limitation. Spectral models outperformed trait-based models in predicting cross-site leaf P fractions, regardless of concentrations (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.50-0.88 vs 0.34-0.74) or proportions (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.43-0.70 vs 0.06-0.45). These findings enhance our understanding of leaf P-allocation strategies and highlight reflectance spectroscopy as a promising alternative for characterizing large-scale leaf P fractions and plant P-use strategies, which could ultimately improve the physiological representation of the plant P cycle in land surface models.

New PhytologistVol. 247(3)
University of Notre Dame (US), Texas Tech University (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Minnesota (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (US), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (FR), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK), The University of Western Australia (AU), Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), University of Michigan (US), Beijing Botanical Garden (CN), Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (CN), Beijing Forestry University (CN), Guangdong Academy of Sciences (CN), Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (ES), Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (JP), Guangzhou Institute of Geography (CN), Institute of Botany (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, China National Botanical Garden, China Agricultural University (CN), Western Sydney University (AU), Zhejiang University (CN), University of Hong Kong (HK)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Directorate for Biological Sciences
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
4.42
DOISourceOpenAlex
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