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No evidence for carryover effect in tree rings based on a pulse-labelling experiment on Juniperus communis in South Germany

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A clear carryover effect of tree-ring formation was not detected based on a pulse-labelling experiment conducted on Juniperus communis in South Germany.

Abstract

The inherent linkage between photosynthesis and the formation of wood is important for the understanding of relationships between tree-ring series and climate/environmental data in dendroclimatology studies. However, it is impossible to reach a mechanistic procedure of tree stem radial growth depending on its carbon balance from a traditional statistical point of view alone. Pulse labelling experiment with stable carbon isotope (13CO2) has provided innovative insights into the fate of recently assimilated carbon in organs and carbon-containing compounds. In this study, we conducted an in situ pulse labelling experiment on 27 July 2016 to examine the response of tree ring and different-aged needles to short-term elevated 13CO2 of a juniper shrub growing on a heathland in South Germany. New and old needles from four expositions were sampled before and after the experiment. A wood segment was taken from the main branch and stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) was analysed at an intra-annual time scale. Before the experiment, the mean δ13C was − 26.8 ± 0.4‰ (mean ± standard deviation) for both needle ages, while woody tissue showed about 3‰ higher δ13C compared to needles. Substantial enriched 13C was detected in the needles after the experiment. New needles showed significant higher δ13C than the old ones 1–7 days after the experiment. Significant enriched δ13C was detected in the wood from 35 to 61% of the annual tree ring in 2016, indicating that the short-term enrichment of 13C can affect wood formation for a large section. No enhancement in 13C signal appeared in the tree ring of the subsequent year 2017, suggesting the absence of a carryover effect. Wood formation did not reply on the carbohydrates stored even 1 year before and thus tree-ring ecophysiological modelling as well as dendrochronological studies should therefore benefit from such result.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. We are grateful to Iris Burchardt and Roswitha Höfner-Stich (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg) for assistance with isotope analyses. We also thank Professors Georg Guggenberger and Olga Shibistova from Institute of Soil Science, Leibniz Universität to provide the device for the measurement of atomasphere CO2 during the labelling experiment.

Funding

M. He was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. B. Yang was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 41520104005).

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Correspondence to Minhui He.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by Gessler.

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He, M., Bräuning, A., Rossi, S. et al. No evidence for carryover effect in tree rings based on a pulse-labelling experiment on Juniperus communis in South Germany. Trees 35, 493–502 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-020-02051-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-020-02051-1

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