Plant growth is usually constrained by the availability of nutrients, water, or temperature, rather than photosynthetic carbon (C) fixation. Under these conditions leaf growth is curtailed more than C fixation, and the surplus photosynthates are exported from the leaf. In plants limited by nitrogen (N) or phosphorus (P), photosynthates are converted into sugars and secondary metabolites. Some surplus C is translocated to roots and released as root exudates or transferred to root-associated microorganisms. Surplus C is also produced under low moisture availability, low temperature, and high atmospheric CO2 concentrations, with similar below-ground effects. Many interactions among above- and below-ground ecosystem components can be parsimoniously explained by the production, distribution, and release of surplus C under conditions that limit plant growth.

Department of Ecosystem Biology University of South Bohemia Branisovska 1760 Ceske Budejovice 37005 Czech Republic

Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences University of British Columbia 2424 Main Mall Vancouver BC Canada V6T1Z4

Department of Forest Sciences University of Helsinki P O Box 27 FI 00014 Helsinki Finland

Institute of Botany University of Basel Schönbeinstr 6 CH 4056 Basel Switzerland

Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Vanemuise 46 51014 Tartu Estonia

Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research Lincoln 7640 New Zealand

Plant Ecology Albrecht von Haller Institute for Plant Sciences University of Goettingen 37073 Göttingen Germany

School of Biological Sciences The University of Western Australia Crawley WA 6009 Australia

Trends Ecol Evol. 2021 Mar;36(3):175-176. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.11.005. PubMed

Trends Ecol Evol. 2021 Mar;36(3):176-177. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.12.005. PubMed

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