The role of mesophyll conductance in the economics of nitrogen and water use in photosynthesis

A recent resurgence of interest in formal optimisation theory has begun to improve our understanding of how variations in stomatal conductance and photosynthetic capacity control the response of whole plant photosynthesis and growth to the environment. However, mesophyll conductance exhibits similar variation and has similar impact on photosynthesis as stomatal conductance; yet, the role of mesophyll conductance in the economics of photosynthetic resource use has not been thoroughly explored. In this article, we first briefly summarise the knowledge of how mesophyll conductance varies in relation to environmental factors that also affect stomatal conductance and photosynthetic capacity, and then we use a simple analytical approach to begin to explore how these important controls on photosynthesis should mutually co-vary in a plant canopy in the optimum. Our analysis predicts that when either stomatal or mesophyll conductance is limited by fundamental biophysical constraints in some areas of a canopy, e.g. reduced stomatal conductance in upper canopy leaves due to reduced water potential, the other of the two conductances should increase in those leaves, while photosynthetic capacity should decrease. Our analysis also predicts that if mesophyll conductance depends on nitrogen investment in one or more proteins, then nitrogen investment should shift away from Rubisco and towards mesophyll conductance if hydraulic or other constraints cause chloroplastic CO2 concentration to decline. Thorough exploration of these issues awaits better knowledge of whether and how mesophyll conductance is itself limited by nitrogen investment, and about how these determinants of photosynthetic CO2 supply and demand co-vary among leaves in real plant canopies.