Resolving the Multiple Controls of Biomass Production Efficiency in Woody Plants
7 affiliations
- 1Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Ascot UK
- 2Department of Geography and Environmental Science University of Reading Reading UK
- 3School of Geographical Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK
- 4Cabot Institute for the Environment University of Bristol Bristol UK
- 5Graduate Program in Civil and Environmental Engineering (PPGECA) Federal University of Campina Grande Campina Grande Brazil
- 6Forest Modelling Laboratory, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean National Research Council of Italy (CNR‐ISAFOM) Perugia Italy
- 7Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies Tsinghua University Beijing China
Abstract
Plants assimilate carbon through photosynthesis to support biomass production (BP), autotrophic respiration (R a) and the synthesis of non‐structural compounds. Biomass production efficiency (BPE), the fraction of assimilated carbon allocated to BP, is one key factor influencing ecosystems' potential to store carbon. However, there is no consensus on the controls of BPE, and even the sign of its response to growth temperature is unclear. By means of statistical hypothesis testing using the largest observational dataset to date on annual BPE (n = 514 records) from evergreen and deciduous woody plants, we confirm earlier findings that BPE declines with stand age and is greater in deciduous plants. However, we also show that BPE declines toward more organic, sandy, or alkaline soils and increases with climatic aridity, while declining with warmer growing seasons and increasing with warmer winters. Such a dual temperature response is consistent with additional carbon costs due to the need for cold‐hardening processes, and reconciles contradictory published reports of both positive and negative effects of temperature on BPE. Notably, our analysis provides novel evidence that BPE is significantly higher in species associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi than in those associated with ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi and mixed EcM–AM associations. Our analysis explains the observed BPE patterns better than dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) from the TRENDY (Trends and Drivers of the Regional‐Scale Terrestrial Sources and Sinks of Carbon Dioxide) project, which show a weaker correspondence with observations. In particular, our model captures reduced BPE in boreal regions, consistent with the predominance of ectomycorrhizal (EcM) species there. This study advances understanding of the global controls of BPE, and suggests a route toward the improved representation of plant growth in vegetation and land surface models.
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BibTeX
@article{ding2026resolving,
title = {{Resolving the Multiple Controls of Biomass Production Efficiency in Woody Plants}},
author = {Ruijie Ding and Rodolfo L. B. Nóbrega and Alessio Collalti and Sandy P. Harrison and Iain Colin Prentice},
journal = {Global Change Biology},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1111/gcb.71173},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.71173},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Resolving the Multiple Controls of Biomass Production Efficiency in Woody Plants
AU - Ruijie Ding
AU - Rodolfo L. B. Nóbrega
AU - Alessio Collalti
AU - Sandy P. Harrison
AU - Iain Colin Prentice
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - Global Change Biology
DO - 10.1111/gcb.71173
UR - https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.71173
AB - Plants assimilate carbon through photosynthesis to support biomass production (BP), autotrophic respiration (R a) and the synthesis of non‐structural compounds. Biomass production efficiency (BPE), the fraction of assimilated carbon allocated to BP, is one key factor influencing ecosystems' potential to store carbon. However, there is no consensus on the controls of BPE, and even the sign of its response to growth temperature is unclear. By means of statistical hypothesis testing using the largest observational dataset to date on annual BPE (n = 514 records) from evergreen and deciduous woody plants, we confirm earlier findings that BPE declines with stand age and is greater in deciduous plants. However, we also show that BPE declines toward more organic, sandy, or alkaline soils and increases with climatic aridity, while declining with warmer growing seasons and increasing with warmer winters. Such a dual temperature response is consistent with additional carbon costs due to the need for cold‐hardening processes, and reconciles contradictory published reports of both positive and negative effects of temperature on BPE. Notably, our analysis provides novel evidence that BPE is significantly higher in species associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi than in those associated with ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi and mixed EcM–AM associations. Our analysis explains the observed BPE patterns better than dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) from the TRENDY (Trends and Drivers of the Regional‐Scale Terrestrial Sources and Sinks of Carbon Dioxide) project, which show a weaker correspondence with observations. In particular, our model captures reduced BPE in boreal regions, consistent with the predominance of ectomycorrhizal (EcM) species there. This study advances understanding of the global controls of BPE, and suggests a route toward the improved representation of plant growth in vegetation and land surface models.
SN - 1354-1013
SN - 1365-2486
ER -