Assessing the relevant time frame for temperature acclimation of leaf dark respiration: A test with 10 boreal and temperate species

Plants often adjust their leaf mitochondrial (“dark”) respiration (R_d) measured at a standardized temperature such as 20°C (R₂₀) downward after experiencing warmer temperatures and upward after experiencing cooler temperatures. These responses may help leaves maintain advantageous photosynthetic capacity and/or be a response to recent photosynthate accumulation, and can occur within days after a change in thermal regime. It is not clear, however, how the sensitivity and magnitude of this response change over time, or which time period prior to a given measurement best predicts R₂₀. Nor is it known whether nighttime, daytime, or 24-hour temperatures should be most influential. To address these issues, we used data from 1620 R_d temperature response curves of 10 temperate and boreal tree species in a long–term field experiment in Minnesota, USA to assess how the observed nearly complete acclimation of R₂₀ was related to past temperatures during periods of differing lengths. We hypothesized that R₂₀ would be best related to prior midday temperatures associated with both photosynthetic biochemistry and peak carbon uptake rates that drive carbohydrate accumulation. Inconsistent with this hypothesis, prior night temperatures were the best predictors of R₂₀ for all species. We had also hypothesized that recent (prior 3–10 days) temperatures should best predict R₂₀ because they likely have stronger residual impacts on leaf-level physiology than periods extending further back in time, whereas a prior 1- to 2-day period might be a span shorter than one to which photosynthetic capacity and R_d adjust. There was little to no support for this idea, as for angiosperms, long time windows (prior 30–60 nights) were the best predictors, while for gymnosperms both near-term (prior 3–8 nights for pines, prior 10–14 nights for spruce/fir) and longer-term periods (prior 45 nights) were the best predictors. The importance of nighttime temperatures, the relatively long “time-averaging” that best explained acclimation, and dual peaks of temporal acclimation responsiveness in some species were all results that were unanticipated.