A test of the optimality approach to modelling canopy properties and CO₂ uptake by natural vegetation

Photosynthesis provides plants with their main building material, carbohydrates, and with the energy necessary to thrive and prosper in their environment. We expect, therefore, that natural vegetation would evolve optimally to maximize its net carbon profit (N_CP), the difference between carbon acquired by photosynthesis and carbon spent on maintenance of the organs involved in its uptake. We modelled N_CP for an optimal vegetation for a site in the wet-dry tropics of north Australia based on this hypothesis and on an ecophysiological gas exchange and photosynthesis model, and compared the modelled CO₂ fluxes and canopy properties with observations from the site. The comparison gives insights into theoretical and real controls on gas exchange and canopy structure, and supports the optimality approach for the modelling of gas exchange of natural vegetation. The main advantage of the optimality approach we adopt is that no assumptions about the particular vegetation of a site are required, making it a very powerful tool for predicting vegetation response to long-term climate or land use change.