1. Woody biomass production lags stem-girth increase by over one month in coniferous forests
- Author
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J. Julio Camarero, Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Patrick Fonti, Filipe Campelo, Harri Mäkinen, Hanuš Vavrčík, Marina V. Bryukhanova, David Frank, Gregory King, Edurne Martínez del Castillo, Katarina Čufar, Meriem Fournier, Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber, Hubert Morin, Annie Deslauriers, Tuula Jyske, Peter Prislan, Jožica Gričar, Cornelia Krause, Martin de Luis, Pekka Nöjd, Cristina Nabais, Eryuan Liang, Sergio Rossi, Andreas Gruber, Walter Oberhuber, Vladimír Gryc, Václav Treml, Xiaoxia Li, Henri E. Cuny, Joana Vieira, Jianguo Huang, Irene Swidrak, Laboratoire d'Etudes des Ressources Forêt-Bois (LERFoB), AgroParisTech-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Avalanche Research WSL, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Slovenian Forestry Institute, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences [Changchun Branch] (CAS), University of Zaragoza - Universidad de Zaragoza [Zaragoza], University of Coimbra [Portugal] (UC), Mendel University in Brno, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS), Siberian Federal University (SibFU), University of Ljubljana, University of Innsbruck, Charles University [Prague], Queen's University [Kingston], French National Research Agency (ANR) (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01), Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y421081001), Austrian Science Fund (FWF P19563-B16, P22280-B16), Academy of Finland (250299, 257641, 265504), Slovenian Research Agency (P4-0015, P4-0107), European Social Fund, state budget of the Czech Republic, Project Indicators of trees vitality (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0265), Russian Science Foundation (14-14-00295), CAS President's International Fellowship Initiative (2015VBB032), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroParisTech, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Mendel University in Brno (MENDELU), Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia (IPE), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Charles University [Prague] (CU), and Queen's University [Kingston, Canada]
- Subjects
Biomass (ecology) ,Phenology ,Ecology ,[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,Eddy covariance ,WOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ,Plant Science ,15. Life on land ,Carbon sequestration ,Annual cycle ,Carbon cycle ,13. Climate action ,Forest ecology ,Temperate climate ,Environmental science - Abstract
Wood is the main terrestrial biotic reservoir for long-term carbon sequestration(1), and its formation in trees consumes around 15% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions each year(2). However, the seasonal dynamics of woody biomass production cannot be quantified from eddy covariance or satellite observations. As such, our understanding of this key carbon cycle component, and its sensitivity to climate, remains limited. Here, we present high-resolution cellular based measurements of wood formation dynamics in three coniferous forest sites in northeastern France, performed over a period of 3 years. We show that stem woody biomass production lags behind stem-girth increase by over 1 month. We also analyse more general phenological observations of xylem tissue formation in Northern Hemisphere forests and find similar time lags in boreal, temperate, subalpine and Mediterranean forests. These time lags question the extension of the equivalence between stem size increase and woody biomass production to intra-annual time scales(3, 4, 5, 6). They also suggest that these two growth processes exhibit differential sensitivities to local environmental conditions. Indeed, in the well-watered French sites the seasonal dynamics of stem-girth increase matched the photoperiod cycle, whereas those of woody biomass production closely followed the seasonal course of temperature. We suggest that forecasted changes in the annual cycle of climatic factors(7) may shift the phase timing of stem size increase and woody biomass production in the future.
- Published
- 2015
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