Carbon allocation patterns

Axelsson, E. Axelsson, B. (1986). Changes in carbon allocation patterns in spruce and pine trees following irrigation and fertilization. Tree Physiology, 2, 189-204. 

The carbon/nutrient balance hypothesis (CNBH) was originally proposed to explain resource allocation patterns in terrestrial vascular plants. It has also been used to examine defense allocation patterns in macroalgae. The CNBH predicts that when carbon is available but nutrients are limited, plants should increase concentrations of carbon-based defenses.135 When carbon is available but nutrients are abundant, plants should invest resources in growth. If carbon is limiting, such as when shading lowers photosynthetic rates, carbon should be allocated to growth and the production of carbon-based defenses should decrease. 

Thus interpretations have undergone a shift (22). Initially defense patterns were interpreted from the point of view of the herbivore, which led to the distinction of qualititative and quantitative defense. Emphasis on the nutrient resources and plant metabolism then led to an amplification of Arens ideas in the "resource allocation hypothesis" (7 ), from which the distinction between immobile and mobile defense was derived. Somewhat different is the distinction between nitrogen-based and carbon-based defense (25), which exclusively is based on trophic conditions and may prove fiuitfiil in the context of forest ecology. 

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