Journal
BIOGEOSCIENCES
Volume 15, Issue 3, Pages 693-702Publisher
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
DOI: 10.5194/bg-15-693-2018
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31330012, 31621091]
- DIVERSITAS/Future Earth
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
- EU project BACI [640176]
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Plant carbon (C) content is one of the most important plant traits and is critical to the assessment of global C cycle and ecological stoichiometry; however, the global variations in plant C content remain poorly understood. In this study, we conducted a global analysis of the plant C content by synthesizing data from 4318 species to document specific values and their variation of the C content across plant organs and life forms. Plant organ C contents ranged from 45.0% in reproductive organs to 47.9% in stems at global scales, which were significantly lower than the widely employed canonical value of 50 %. Plant C content in leaves (global mean of 46.9 %) was higher than that in roots (45.6 %). Across life forms, woody plants exhibited higher C content than herbaceous plants. Conifers, relative to broad-leaved woody species, had higher C content in roots, leaves, and stems. Plant C content tended to show a decrease with increasing latitude. The life form explained more variation of the C content than climate. Our findings suggest that specific C content values of different organs and life forms developed in our study should be incorporated into the estimations of regional and global vegetation biomass C stocks.
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