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Complex aspen forest carbon and root dynamics during drought

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Abstract

Drought-induced vegetation mortality has been documented on every vegetated continent in recent decades and constitutes a major uncertainty in climate change impacts on terrestrial ecosystems and carbon cycle feedbacks. While recent research has focused on specific failure mechanisms during drought-induced forest die-off, a broader understanding of the physiology of trees under drought, especially changes in growth and carbon allocation, is needed for determining the sensitivity of forests to drought and interacting mechanisms during forest mortality. I present here multi-tissue and high-resolution temporal dynamics of tree carbon resources during moderate experimental and natural drought in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests, a major forest type in western North America that recently experienced widespread drought-induced die-off. Drought led to substantial declines in inferred carbon uptake. Tree carbohydrate concentrations, however, largely increased in concert with substantial decreases in growth and severe declines in root biomass. These findings highlight that growth declines, especially in fine roots which are important to water uptake, and increased carbon allocation to root non-structural carbohydrates are key responses to drought in aspen and could play an important role in widespread die-off. They suggest multi-year consequences of drought and carbon-hydraulic interconnections. They underscore the need for a more integrated multi-tissue, multi-process, and multi-year perspective of climate-induced forest mortality.

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Acknowledgements

I thank E. Callaway, L. Anderegg, M. Anderegg, M. Love, C. Sherman for assistance with fieldwork. I thank E. Pringle, T. Raab, L. Anderegg, A. Winslow, A. Hauslade, N. Bitler, A. Lunny, W. Lagrandeur, J. Burr, A. Hines, M. Erviti, G. Griffin, M. Dini, S. Shin for assistance in laboratory work. I thank H. Mooney, J. Berry, and C. Field for helpful comments on the manuscript and A. Nees for providing the landscape fine root data. I thank the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Morrison Institute of Population and Resource Studies, Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Stanford Biology SCORE Program for research equipment and funding. W.R.L.A. was supported in part by an award from the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Fellowship Program (DOE SCGF). The DOE SCGF Program was made possible in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The DOE SCGF program is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the DOE. ORISE is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) under DOE contract number DE-AC05-06OR23100. All opinions expressed in this paper are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the policies and views of DOE, ORAU, or ORISE.

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  1. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Gilbert Building, Room 109, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, 94305-5020, USA

    William R. L. Anderegg

  2. Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    William R. L. Anderegg

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  1. William R. L. Anderegg
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Correspondence to William R. L. Anderegg.

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Figure S1

Sap-flow (mean +/− SEM; kg H2O/m2 sapwood area/day) of a the healthier, northwest-facing stand (Site H; gray) and more stressed, south-facing stand (Site S; black) during seasonal drought. (PDF 38 kb)

Figure S2

Percent dry mass (mean +/− SEM) of starch (A) and sucrose (B) in tissues from potted trees on a bi-weekly basis. Blue bars are those of control trees; Red bars are those of drought trees. (PDF 52 kb)

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Anderegg, W.R.L. Complex aspen forest carbon and root dynamics during drought. Climatic Change 111, 983–991 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0421-9

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