Optimal photosynthetic traits on ecological time-scales

该项目旨在了解土壤和气候如何塑造植物光合作用中养分和水分利用的生态策略。陆地生物圈模型（包括生态系统、陆地表面和植被模型）基于光合作用的生化模型，该模型准确地表示生理时间尺度上的过程，但缺乏理解物种沿着土壤和气候的地理梯度适应所需的生态进化视角。该项目将基于微观经济学和最优性原则的理论与本地和全球尺度特征数据集的实证分析相结合。这些知识旨在形成“下一代”全球植被模型的核心。这将使政府机构能够发现未来气候和二氧化碳变化对澳大利亚植被结构、功能和组成、森林生产力和生物多样性的可能影响。

This project aims to understand how soils and climate shape plant ecological strategies for nutrient and water use in photosynthesis. Terrestrial biosphere models (including ecosystem, land surface and vegetation models) are based on a biochemical model for photosynthesis that accurately represents processes on physiological time-scales but lacks the ecological-evolutionary perspective needed to understand species’ adaptations along geographic gradients of soils and climate. This project will integrate theory based on microeconomic and optimality principles with empirical analysis of local- and global-scale trait datasets. This knowledge is intended to form the core of a ‘next-generation’ global vegetation model. This will allow government agencies to discover the likely effects of future climate and carbon dioxide changes on Australian vegetation structure, function and composition, forest productivity, and biodiversity.