The carbon cost of plant nitrogen acquisition: A mechanistic, globally-applicable model of plant nitrogen uptake, retranslocation and fixation

We introduce a new mathematical model of plant N acquisition, called Fixation and Uptake of Nitrogen (FUN), based on active and passive soil N uptake, leaf N retranslocation, and biological N fixation. This model is unified under the theoretical framework of carbon (C) cost economics, or resource optimization.

FUN specifies C allocated to N acquisition as well as remaining C for growth, or N-limitation to growth. We test the model with data from a wide range of sites (observed versus predicted N uptake r2 is 0.89, and RMSE is 0.003 kg N m−2·yr−1). Four model tests are performed: (1) fixers versus nonfixers under primary succession; (2) response to N fertilization; (3) response to CO2 fertilization; and (4) changes in vegetation C from potential soil N trajectories for five DGVMs (HYLAND, LPJ, ORCHIDEE, SDGVM, and TRIFFID) under four IPCC scenarios.