Generalized Stomatal Optimization of Evolutionary Fitness Proxies for Predicting Plant Gas Exchange Under Drought, Heatwaves, and Elevated CO₂.

ABSTRACT: Stomata control plant water loss and photosynthetic carbon gain. Developing more generalized and accurate stomatal models is essential for earth system models and predicting responses under novel environmental conditions associated with global change. Plant optimality theories offer one promising approach, but most such theories assume that stomatal conductance maximizes photosynthetic net carbon assimilation subject to some cost or constraint of water. We move beyond this approach by developing a new, generalized optimality theory of stomatal conductance, optimizing any non-foliar proxy that requires water and carbon reserves, like growth, survival, and reproduction. We overcome two prior limitations. First, we reconcile the computational efficiency of instantaneous optimization with a mo

SUBMITTER: Potkay A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11774141 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature