Abstract
Recent models of carbon isotope fractionation in plants (Francey and Farquhar 1982) have demonstrated that environmental factors such as light and nutrient levels may contribute to stable carbon isotope variability in tree rings. In field settings, it may be difficult or impossible to visually assess the levels of such environmental parameters to which individual trees have been exposed. If it is possible, then individuals subjected to constant light and nutrient levels through time can be selected for those applications where the tree-ring isotopic time series is intended to accurately reflect only changes in the isotopic composition of atmospheric carbon dioxide (e.g., Peng et al. 1983). In tracer studies with stable carbon isotopes, perhaps involving analysis of living tree wood samples or wood fragments in litter, the question may arise as to how well isotopic measurements on wood of one tree may reflect the stand as a whole.
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Leavitt, S.W., Long, A. (1989). Intertree Variability of δ13C in Tree Rings. In: Rundel, P.W., Ehleringer, J.R., Nagy, K.A. (eds) Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research. Ecological Studies, vol 68. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3498-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3498-2_7
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