Plant Ecology in a Changing World
  • Topics
    • Topic Overview
    • Biomes and Climates in a Changing World >
      • Adaptation, biodiversity, and environment
      • Climate constrains plant distributions
      • Biome and climate relationships
      • Deserts
      • Grassland, savanna, and shrub biomes
      • Forest biomes
      • Alpine and tundra biomes
    • Plant adaptation >
      • Plant microclimate 1
      • Plant microclimate 2
      • Leaf energy budgets
      • Water movement through the soil-plant continuum
      • Principles of photosynthesis
      • Photosynthesis responses to light and temperature
      • Environmental stresses limit resource capture and use
      • Nutrients in the environment
      • Adaptation to environmental stress
    • Resource Allocation Changes with Environment >
      • Architecture and canopy processes
      • Plant phenology and resource allocation enhance performance
      • Leaf economic spectrum
      • Life history and reproduction
      • Defense against herbivory
      • Plant competition
    • Plant Responses to a Changing World >
      • Global changes occurring today
      • Invasive species
      • Atmospheric CO2 impacts plant
      • C3/C4 photosynthesis and climate
      • Climate change and the global carbon cycle
      • Climate warming and its impacts
    • Engineering Plant Communities >
      • Remember Utah's past and envision our future
      • Restoration ecology
      • Managed ecosystems
      • Utah urban ecology
      • Urban ecological futures
  • Assignments
    • Assignment Overview
    • Discussion
    • Problem sets
    • Ecology & Global Changes
    • Plant ecology policy
    • Defense of policy
    • Exam #1
    • Exam #2
  • Campus
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    • Grasses
    • Green infrastructure >
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        • GI 1
        • GI 2
        • GI 3
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        • Pollinator species
    • Trees of the Wasatch
    • Shrubs of the Wasatch
    • Invasives
  • Biomes
    • Biome Overview
    • Climate diagrams
    • Vegetation sight-seeing trip
    • Biome images
  • Models
  • Lab
Still in preparation - check back soon
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Topic 16 - Plant architecture and carbon balance integrate plant activities


Essential elements from Topic 16:
Here, we discuss how photosynthesis of individual leaves becomes integrated into whole canopy photosynthesis.  We will learn about
  • concepts of carbon balance and integration of plant activities at the canopy scale
  • definitions and magnitudes of primary productivity at the canopy and ecosystems scales
  • bottom-up and top-down models to predict canopy-scale photosynthesis
  • leaf area index distributions in canopies and of the Beers-Lambert based approaches to understand light attenuation within canopies
  • how variations in leaf angle through a canopy influence light penetration and overall canopy photosynthetic rates
  • spacing relationships among leaves within the canopy influencing umbral and penumbral patterns
  • nitrogen as a measure of protein content
  • the distribution of protein within leaves and of the optimal distribution and re-distribution of nitrogen within a canopy
  • the role of red to far red ratios as an indicator of location within a plant canopy and how this measure influences development

In the independent XLSX module, we provide you with an excel spreadsheet that allows you to calculate canopy light penetration profiles and overall photosynthetic rates given different leaf area index profiles, leaf angle distributions, and photosynthetic capacities..

Given the autotrophic dependence and general immobility of plants, a number of adaptation allow them to persist through rather large changes in the quality of the physical environment. In this lecture, we will see just how acclimation responses allow leaves to photosynthesize across a wide range of environmental conditions.

Click here to download PDF of slides associated with Topic 16
Click here to view YOUTUBE videos on Topic 16
Jim Ehleringer, University of Utah