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Annals of Botany 81: 489-501, 1998
© 1998 Annals of Botany Company

Simulating Growth and Root-shoot Partitioning in Prairie Grasses Under Elevated Atmospheric CO2and Water Stress

H. W. HUNT, J. A. MORGAN and J. J. READ+,

Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and Department of Rangeland Ecosystem Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, U.S.A. USDA-ARS, Crops Research Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, U.S.A.

June 2, 1997 ; August 26, 1997 . December 4, 1997 .

We constructed a model simulating growth, shoot-root partitioning, plant nitrogen (N) concentration and total non-structural carbohydrates in perennial grasses. Carbon (C) allocation was based on the concept of a functional balance between root and shoot growth, which responded to variable plant C and N supplies. Interactions between the plant and environment were made explicit by way of variables for soil water and soil inorganic N. The model was fitted to data on the growth of two species of perennial grass subjected to elevated atmospheric CO2and water stress treatments. The model exhibited complex feedbacks between plant and environment, and the indirect effects of CO2and water treatments on soil water and soil inorganic N supplies were important in interpreting observed plant responses. Growth was surprisingly insensitive to shoot-root partitioning in the model, apparently because of the limited soil N supply, which weakened the expected positive relationship between root growth and total N uptake. Alternative models for the regulation of allocation between shoots and roots were objectively compared by using optimization to find the least squares fit of each model to the data. Regulation by various combinations of C and N uptake rates, C and N substrate concentrations, and shoot and root biomass gave nearly equivalent fits to the data, apparently because these variables were correlated with each other. A partitioning function that maximized growth predicted too high a root to shoot ratio, suggesting that partitioning did not serve to maximize growth under the conditions of the experiment.Copyright 1998 Annals of Botany Company

plant growth model, optimization, nitrogen, non-structural carbohydrates, carbon partitioning, elevated CO2, water stress,Pascopyrum smithii,Bouteloua gracilis, photosynthetic pathway, maximal growth


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