Carbon balance as a mechanism for shade intolerance in American Sweetgum
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Brown, Alexander
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Curriculum in Environment and Ecology
- Abstract
- Shade intolerant species may respond strongly to changes in light availability, particularly if other abiotic and biotic conditions change. Conversely, these same abiotic and biotic factors may promote weaker responses in shade tolerant species. Indeed, shade intolerant species generally have higher photosynthetic capacities than shade tolerant ones regardless of light availability (Valladares & Niinemets 2008), indicating that their inability to persist is due to other factors. Thus, shade intolerant species may be ideal for testing whether abiotic and biotic factors can influence a species’ ability to persist in the shade. In this study, I manipulated light, nitrogen, and enemy pressure to examine the three mechanisms through which seedlings of a shade intolerant tree species may maintain a positive carbon balance. I asked the following questions: 1) How do light and nitrogen availability and enemy pressure affect total plant biomass? 2) How do light and nitrogen availability affect allocation to above- and belowground biomass? 3) How do light and nitrogen availability affect reallocation of belowground biomass, and does this reallocation affect tolerance of damage? 4) How do light and nitrogen availability affect resistance to damage?
- Date of publication
- spring 2016
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation
- Advisor
- Mitchell, Charles
- Degree
- Bachelor of Science
- Honors level
- Highest Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 18
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