Special Issue Manuscript

My manuscript entitled Global methane emission estimates from ultraviolet irradiation of terrestrial plant foliage published in the journal New Phytologist in March 2010, co-authored with colleagues in the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA was selected for inclusion in a Special Online Issue of the journal to commemorate the three-quarter century since Sir Arthur Tansley published a seminal paper introducing the ecosystem concept in biological studies. The Virtual Special Issue presents a series of papers that span the range from the gene to the globe in order to illustrate the ecosystem concept in modern science.

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New Phytologist (2010) Volume 187, 417-425 Abstract | Full Article (HTML) | PDF Copies of the article for use by individuals for non-commercial personal use or study may be requested from the authors. Email: andy.mcleod@ed.ac.uk

The New Phytologist Editorial outlining the Virtual Special Issue on the Sir Arthur Tansley’s Ecosytem concept describes two of my manuscripts that address plants and biogeochemistry explaining that “The connection between plant traits and ecosystem processes, particularly biogeochemical cycles, has been a particular focus of recent research in ecosystem ecology” and “it has been shown that leaf surfaces emit methane in living plants due to the absorption of ultraviolet radiation by plant pectins (Keppler et al., 2006; McLeod et al., 2008), although it was recently determined that these emissions, while locally important, may not be significant at the global scale (Bloom et al., 2010).