The paper by Lianhong Gu and Georg “The many meanings of gross photosynthesis and their implication for photosynthesis research from leaf to globe” (doi: 10.1111/pce.12569) has been recommended by Faculty-of-1000 member Dennis Baldocchi:

“The more we study ecosystem photosynthesis and upscale such information to the globe, the more we seem to discover uncertainties. The global flux community infers ecosystem photosynthesis by subtracting ecosystem respiration from direct measurements of net ecosystem exchange. On paper this sounds good. But it assumes validity of the extrapolation of night respiration measurements to day based on temperature response functions. Physiologists tell us that the Kok effect can reduce plant respiration in light.
This paper does an excellent job surveying this topic and discuss new and independent methods to constrain measurements of ecosystem photosynthesis. Biases and errors are described in detail.”

Thanks Dennis!

Desai A. R., Wohlfahrt G., Zeeman M. J., Katata G., Eugster W., Montagnani L., Gianelle D., Mauder M., Schmid H.-P. (2015) Montane ecosystems respond more to global circulation patterns than climatic trends. Environmental Research Letters 11 (2): 024013, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/024013.

Jud W., Fischer L., Canaval E., Wohlfahrt G., Tissier A., Hansel A. (2016) Plant surface reactions: an opportunistic ozone defence mechanism impacting atmospheric chemistry. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16, 277-292, doi: 10.5194/acp-16-277-2016. [OPEN ACCESS]

Zhou Y., Wu X., Ju W., Chen J., Wang S., Wang H., Yuan W., Black A., Jassal R., Ibrom A., Han S., Yan J., Margolis H., Roupsard O., Li Y., Zhao F., Kiely G., Starr G., Pavelka M., Montagnani L., Wohlfahrt G., D’Odorico P., Cook D., Arain A., Bonal D., Beringer J., Blanken P., Loubet B., Leclerc M., Matteucci G., Nagy Z., Olejnik J., Paw U K. T., Varlagin A. (2015) Global parameterization and validation of a two-leaf light use efficiency model for predicting gross primary production across FLUXNET sites. Journal of Geophysical Research–Biogeosciences, doi: 10.1002/2014JG002876. [OPEN ACCESS]

Wohlfahrt G., Gu L. (2015) The many meanings of gross photosynthesis and their implication for photosynthesis research from leaf to globe. Plant, Cell and Environment 38, 2500-2507, doi: 10.1111/pce.12569. [OPEN ACCESS]