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Back in July, we posted a blog on the LEMONTREE <\/span>1st-year progress report.<\/span><\/a> It has been an incredibly busy summer with fieldwork carried out in the Rocky Mountains<\/a> to test EEO theory along elevational gradients, experiments<\/a> undertaken in laboratories at UWA to look at stomatal conductance and biomass allocation, several conferences attended and 13 papers written.\u00a0 We have just submitted our latest report so here is a very quick summary of our research and activities from April to September 2022. Just click on the links to read more about each item.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our focus over the last few months has been on respiration:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nitrogen limitation. <\/span><\/b>Our analyses of experimental and field data have shown that the relationship between leaf nitrogen and photosynthesis is not static under varying levels of soil nitrogen availability: the fraction of leaf nitrogen allocated to photosynthesis decreases as soil nitrogen availability increases. Most models do not account for this. Our investigations, including new results from greenhouse experiments, have uncovered important issues that have been neglected both in the plant functional ecology literature and in current models. One is that spatial gradients of soil nitrogen availability persistently fail to manifest in field-measured photosynthetic capacity. Another is that nitrogen addition experiments induce increases in photosynthetic capacity in some species and not others \u2013 we are seeking the pattern behind this. The LEMONTREE Nitrogen Working Group is developing a paper that will summarise the current understanding of nitrogen uptake and allocation that will form the basis for a better implementation of the role of nutrients.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the last few months, we have started work on improving the VIC+ model, to create the VIC++ model. So far, we have<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since our last progress report blog, we had the <\/span>MMEE conference<\/span><\/a> at Reading University in July, followed by the first in-person <\/span>LEMONTREE annual meeting<\/span><\/a>. It was great to get the team together, share progress and ideas and plan for future research. Trevor presented at the FluxCourse from the 25<\/span>th<\/span> July- 5<\/span>th<\/span> August, and three PhD students presented at the <\/span>Ecological Society of China Annual Meeting<\/span><\/a> and were all awarded prizes for their talks. Poster presentations were given at the Ameriflux Annual Meeting in September and the ICOS annual meeting.\u00a0<\/span>Colin and Sandy presented at the <\/span>Land Surface Modelling Summit<\/span><\/a> and Colin at the JULES Science Meeting.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since April, we have had a further 6 papers published, 1 in-press and 6 more in review. Here is the list of our latest publications with the LEMONTREE team in bold: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nScience Progress<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n
Challenge 1: Optimality at the leaf and plant level\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Challenge 2: Biophysical coupling of atmosphere, water and land.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
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Challenge 3: Ecosystem properties and biochemical cycling<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Challenge 4: From Plant function, biophysics and biogeochemistry to land-surface and climate modelling.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
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Scientific Outreach<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/div>\nScientific papers<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
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