Publications by authors named "Kirk R Wythers"
Mapping local and global variability in plant trait distributions.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
December 2017
Article Synopsis
- * Traditional methods group plant species into plant functional types (PFTs), averaging their traits, which simplifies the complexities of biodiversity.
- * Using advanced Bayesian modeling and a large global plant trait database, we created detailed maps of plant trait distributions, showcasing how traits vary across the world, highlighting that areas with the most diversity align closely with global PFT averages.
Article Synopsis
- The study highlights the significance of land-atmosphere exchanges in influencing atmospheric CO levels, focusing on both photosynthetic CO uptake and respiration losses.
- New datasets provide insights into upper canopy dark respiration, enabling a better understanding of its baseline rates, temperature responses, and acclimation effects over time.
- Predictions suggest that under global warming, respiration estimates could be approximately 30% higher than current figures, particularly affecting plant respiration in the tropics and mid-latitudes.
Leaf dark respiration (Rdark ) is an important yet poorly quantified component of the global carbon cycle. Given this, we analyzed a new global database of Rdark and associated leaf traits. Data for 899 species were compiled from 100 sites (from the Arctic to the tropics).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeaf area index (LAI) is a key biophysical variable in most process-based forest-ecosystem models. However, most such models require LAI as an input, typically obtained from empirical observations. We tested whether scaling principles based on trade-offs between single leaf and canopy properties could be effectively used to model LAI, thereby obviating the need for empirical observations.
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