New Phytologist Review Tansley review Biological stoichiometry of plant production: metabolism, scaling and ecological response to global change Author for correspondence: J. J. Elser1, W. F. Fagan2, A. J. Kerkhoff3, N. G. Swenson4 J. J. Elser 5,6,7 Tel: +1 480 965 9747 and B. J. Enquist Email:
[email protected] 1School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA; 2Department of Biology, 3 Received: 19 May 2009 University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Department of Biology and Department of Accepted: 4 January 2010 Mathematics, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022, USA; 4Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; 5Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; 6The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA; 7Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, Arlington, VA 22202, USA Contents Summary 1 V. Applications: large-scale patterns and processes 9 associated with plant stoichiometry I. Introduction 2 VI. Global change and plants: a stoichiometric scaling 11 II. Variation in plant C : N : P ratios: how much and what are 3 perspective the sources? VII. Synthesis and summary 12 III. The growth rate hypothesis in terrestrial plants and the 5 scaling of whole-plant N : P stoichiometry Acknowledgements 13 and production References 13 IV. Scaling from tissues to whole plants 7 Summary New Phytologist (2010) Biological stoichiometry theory considers the balance of multiple chemical ele- doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03214.x ments in living systems, whereas metabolic scaling theory considers how size affects metabolic properties from cells to ecosystems.