Forests play an important role in climate change mitigation. The relationship between seasonal carbon uptake and its allocation in woody biomass remains poorly understood, leaving a significant gap in our ability to predict carbon sequestration by forests. The intra-annual dynamics of carbon fluxes and wood formation and the dynamics of carbon assimilation and formation of nonstructural carbohydrates to their incorporation into woody tissues in different Northern Hemisphere ecosystems were compared for the first time.
Seasonal peaks of carbon assimilation (GPP) and wood cell differentiation are temporally coupled, whereas the two processes are essentially decoupled during periods of vegetative rest. The peaks of cambial activity occur substantially earlier than GPP, suggesting the buffer role of nonstructural carbohydrates between carbon assimilation and carbon allocation processes in wood. Our results suggest that high-resolution seasonal data of ecosystem carbon fluxes, wood formation and associated physiological processes can reduce uncertainties in the relationships between carbon source and sink at different spatial scales, from stand to ecosystem level.
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49494-5
Contacts
Alessio Giovannelli