2025/01/01 by Bethany L Holland, Nick Monk, Richard H. Clayton +1 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics #Plant responses to elevated CO2 #Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/insilicoplants/diaf004
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract The allocation of resources to roots and shoots can greatly alter total plant mass. Allocation is thought to be the consequence of uptake rates, transport rates, and growth rates and the communication between them via signalling mechanisms. Feedbacks that alter resource uptake and use are induced in nature by changes in the internal pools of carbon and nitrogen, but how these function together to define allocation remains unclear. We introduce a framework model of internal feedback responses to changes in plant carbon and nitrogen concentrations. We evaluate how well the model responds to changes in carbon and nitrogen availability by simulating external environmental perturbations that influence the uptake of carbon and nitrogen. The model reflects experimental results when looking at the effect of atmospheric CO2 and soil nitrogen concentrations on total plant mass and replicates observed responses to leaf defoliation events. Overall, this shows that a combination of known signalling mechanisms are sufficient to reproduce experimentally observed responses to external resource availability. Model simulations highlight key areas of uncertainty where more empirical data are needed. In particular, quantitative data are needed to establish the strengths and rates at which feedback responses to carbon and nitrogen substrate concentrations alter growth and uptake rates.