Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Furze, Morgan E.
• Drake, John E.
• Wiesenbauer, Julia
• Richter, Andreas
• Pendall, Elise

Titel

Carbon isotopic tracing of sugars throughout whole‐trees exposed to climate warming

Ist Teil von

• Plant, cell and environment, 2019-12, Vol.42 (12), p.3253-3263

Ort / Verlag

United States: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Trees allocate C from sources to sinks by way of a series of processes involving carbohydrate transport and utilization. Yet these dynamics are not well characterized in trees, and it is unclear how these dynamics will respond to a warmer world. Here, we conducted a warming and pulse‐chase experiment on Eucalyptus parramattensis growing in a whole‐tree chamber system to test whether warming impacts carbon allocation by increasing the speed of carbohydrate dynamics. We pulse‐labelled large (6‐m tall) trees with 13C‐CO2 to follow recently fixed C through different organs by using compound‐specific isotope analysis of sugars. We then compared concentrations and mean residence times of individual sugars between ambient and warmed (+3°C) treatments. Trees dynamically allocated 13C‐labelled sugars throughout the aboveground‐belowground continuum. We did not, however, find a significant treatment effect on C dynamics, as sugar concentrations and mean residence times were not altered by warming. From the canopy to the root system, 13C enrichment of sugars decreased, and mean residence times increased, reflecting dilution and mixing of recent photoassimilates with older reserves along the transport pathway. Our results suggest that a locally endemic eucalypt was seemingly able to adjust its physiology to warming representative of future temperature predictions for Australia. This work combined long‐term experimental warming with 13C‐CO2 pulse‐labelling and compound‐specific isotope analysis to trace recent photoassimilates from the leaves to the roots of Eucalyptus parramattensis trees in the field. We compared the concentrations and mean residence times of individual sugars in various organs between ambient and warmed (+3°C) treatments to assess the impact of warming on whole‐tree carbon dynamics. Our results show that carbon dynamics were not altered by warming representative of future temperature predictions for Australia.