Reproduction-related variation in carbon allocation to woody tissues in Fagus crenata using a natural 13C approach.

The contribution of new photo-assimilates and stored carbon (C) to plant growth remains poorly understood, especially during reproduction. In order to elucidate how mast seeding affects C allocation to both reproductive and vegetative tissues, we measured biomass increase in each tissue, branch starch concentration and stable C isotope composition (δ13C) in bulk leaves, current-year shoots, 3-year branches and tree rings in fruiting and non-fruiting trees for 2 years, as well as in fruits. We isolated the effect of reproduction on C allocation to vegetative growth by comparing 13C enrichment in woody tissues in fruiting and nonfruiting specimens. Compared with 2‰ 13C enrichment in shoots relative to leaves from non-fruiting trees, fruiting reduced the enrichment to 1‰ and this reduction disappeared in the following year with no fruiting, indicating that new photo-assimilates are preferentially used for woody tissues even with fruiting burden. In contrast, fruits had up to 2.5‰ 13C enrichment at midsummer, which dropped thereafter, indicating that fruit production relies on C storage early in the growing season then shifts to current photo-assimilates. At this tipping point, growth of shoots and cupules had almost finished and nuts had a second rapid growth period thereafter. Together with shorter shoots but higher biomass increment per length in fruiting trees than nonfruiting trees, these results indicate that the C limitation due to fruit burden is minimized by fine-tuning of allocation of old C stores and new photo-assimilates, along with the growth pattern in various tissues. Furthermore, fruiting had no significant effect on starch concentration in 3-year-old branches, which became fully depleted during leaf and flower flushing but were quickly replenished. These results indicate that reproduction affects C allocation to branches but not its source or storage. These reproduction-related variations in the fate of C have implications for evaluating forest ecosystem C cycles during climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]