Annemarie Eckes-Shephard
Researcher
Inter-annual and inter-species tree growth explained by phenology of xylogenesis
Author
Summary, in English
Wood formation determines major long-term carbon (C) accumulation in trees and therefore provides a crucial ecosystem service in mitigating climate change. Nevertheless, we lack understanding of how species with contrasting wood anatomical types differ with respect to phenology and environmental controls on wood formation. In this study, we investigated the seasonality and rates of radial growth and their relationships with climatic factors, and the seasonal variations of stem nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) in three species with contrasting wood anatomical types (red oak: ring-porous; red maple: diffuse-porous; white pine: coniferous) in a temperate mixed forest during 2017–2019. We found that the high ring width variability observed in both red oak and red maple was caused more by changes in growth duration than growth rate. Seasonal radial growth patterns did not vary following transient environmental factors for all three species. Both angiosperm species showed higher concentrations and lower inter-annual fluctuations of NSC than the coniferous species. Inter-annual variability of ring width varied by species with contrasting wood anatomical types. Due to the high dependence of annual ring width on growth duration, our study highlights the critical importance of xylem formation phenology for understanding and modelling the dynamics of wood formation.
Department/s
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
- Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
Publishing year
2022-08
Language
English
Pages
939-952
Publication/Series
New Phytologist
Volume
235
Issue
3
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Topic
- Physical Geography
Keywords
- cell enlargement
- diffuse porous
- inter-annual variability
- nonstructural carbon hydrate
- ring porous
- temperate forest
- wood phenology
- xylogenesis
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0028-646X