Linking the global carbon cycle to individual metabolism

TLDR

The study develops a model linking individual metabolic rate, constrained by body size and temperature, to ecosystem‑level carbon flux, storage, and turnover in autotrophs, decomposers, and labile soil carbon. The model derives predictions from the size‑ and temperature‑dependent metabolic rates and validates them against global compilations of ecosystem carbon flux, storage, and turnover data. Findings: the model predicts that carbon turnover can increase by up to 10,000‑fold from tree‑ to phytoplankton‑dominated ecosystems, that respiration‑controlled rates rise 16‑fold and photosynthesis‑controlled rates 4‑fold across 0–30 °C, and that these temperature‑size interactions explain observed patterns in plant respiration acclimation, labile carbon storage gradients, and whole‑ecosystem CO₂ flux, thereby confirming that individual metabolic constraints shape the global carbon cycle.

Abstract

Summary We present a model that yields ecosystem‐level predictions of the flux, storage and turnover of carbon in three important pools (autotrophs, decomposers, labile soil C) based on the constraints of body size and temperature on individual metabolic rate. The model predicts a 10 000‐fold increase in C turnover rates moving from tree‐ to phytoplankton‐dominated ecosystems due to the size dependence of photosynthetic rates. The model predicts a 16‐fold increase in rates controlled by respiration (e.g. decomposition, turnover of labile soil C and microbial biomass) over the temperature range 0–30 °C due to the temperature dependence of ATP synthesis in respiratory complexes. The model predicts only a fourfold increase in rates controlled by photosynthesis (e.g. net primary production, litter fall, fine root turnover) over the temperature range 0–30 °C due to the temperature dependence of Rubisco carboxylation in chloroplasts. The difference between the temperature dependence of respiration and photosynthesis yields quantitative predictions for distinct phenomena that include acclimation of plant respiration, geographic gradients in labile C storage, and differences between the short‐ and long‐term temperature dependence of whole‐ecosystem CO 2 flux. These four sets of model predictions were tested using global compilations of data on C flux, storage and turnover in ecosystems. Results support the hypothesis that the combined effects of body size and temperature on individual metabolic rate impose important constraints on the global C cycle. The model thus provides a synthetic, mechanistic framework for linking global biogeochemical cycles to cellular‐, individual‐ and community‐level processes.