ALBERT

Description: Seasonal patterns of change in lipids, sugars, starch, labile (ethanol soluble) constituents, holocellulose, and lignin were studied in six forest-grown white oak (Quercusalba L.) trees. Contents of metabolically active constituents in leaves, twigs, branches, boles (upper and lower), and roots (support and small lateral) were used to construct whole-tree budgets of energy allocation. [14C]Sucrose was also concurrently supplied to the study trees to follow the fate and efficiency of utilization of food reserves. Results showed that white oak rapidly mobilized and replaced food reserves during the critical period of canopy generation in the spring. Starch was more important as a reserve food than lipids or sugar. Large fluctuations in starch in roots in spring and fall suggested a bimodal belowground growth pattern. Labile constituents showed the most pronounced seasonal changes and dominated the calculated whole-tree energy flux patterns. Rapid decline in labile compounds in early spring and a parallel increase in holocellulose suggested a possible pattern of mobilization and resupply of stored reserves associated with in cell wells. This possibility was supported by a concurrent shift of labile 14C to nonlabile 14C in tissues. Canopy generation was calculated to have cost ≤17.7 kg of glucose (1.6 g glucose/g of canopy) of which 13 kg appeared to have come from within the canopy.

Description: Concentration ratios of aluminum to calcium, magnesium, and other divalent cations in increment cores obtained from red spruce and eastern hemlock trees growing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina have increased in an unprecedented manner during the last 15–40 years. These trends, which also occur in other trees growing in eastern North America and Germany may reflect the mobilization of exchangeable aluminum by [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] deposition. The soil chemistry and plant physiology bases for this hypothesis are presented. Many of the spruce and hemlock cores from the Great Smoky Mountains also showed an inverse relationship between radial growth and aluminium:alcium ratios in the wood. Changes in the availability of soil cations, as recorded in tree rings, may provide an ecosystem-level method of evaluating the historical response of forest soils to atmospheric deposition.

Description: Rates of net photosynthesis and dark respiration of red spruce (Picearubens Sarg.) foliage were examined in relationship to soil and foliar nutrient status at three elevations across each of three mountains in the southern Appalachians. These studies tested our previously stated hypothesis that increased dark respiration and reduced growth were associated with natural or induced nutrient deficiency at higher elevation sites. A consistent and highly significant reduction in the ratio of net photosynthesis to dark respiration was found at the highest sites on each mountain compared with lower sites, as had been previously reported for the initial two test sites. This response was produced by significant increases in dark respiration that were associated with low foliar calcium levels and high foliar aluminum levels found at the higher elevation sites in this region. Net photosynthesis was generally comparable between sites. A consistently inverse relationship between dark respiration and foliar calcium was found across highest and lowest elevation sites, while the midelevation sites, where calcium:aluminum ratios were highest, showed less evidence of respiratory response to calcium. Calcium in shoots was significantly reduced in association with increasing levels of soil aluminum in the rooting zone across all sites. Collectively, these studies suggest that reduced calcium supply, occurring in association with competitive inhibition of calcium uptake by high concentrations of aluminum found in soil, may have reduced the availability of carbon for red spruce growth at higher elevation sites. Inferential evidence examined, including atmospheric deposition levels, soil solution chemistry, and historical tree-ring chemistry, suggests that acidic deposition would have been a contributing factor in inducing or amplifying calcium deficiency.

Description: Exploratory studies were initiated at two high-elevation red spruce (Picearubens Sarg.) stands in the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina to document the magnitude and physiological basis of differences in tree growth at the two sites. Increment core data indicate that conditions have become relatively less favorable for mature trees at the upper site during the past 20 years and that annual height growth of sapling trees has been 40% less at that site compared with a similar site at an elevation 215 m lower. Seasonal measurements of net photosynthesis and dark respiration rates of saplings indicated that differences in sapling growth rates at the upper site were associated with increases in dark respiration and less favorable net photosynthesis:dark respiration ratios. Basal diameter increment was most closely associated with differences in current net photosynthesis rates among trees at the upper site, whereas height and diameter growth of the upper canopy related most closely to the net photosynthesis rate among lower-elevation trees. Reduced foliar calcium and magnesium, reduced foliar chlorophyll, increased foliar aluminum, and low ratios of calcium:aluminum were found at the upper site. Tissue and soil aluminum levels that are in the range of those associated with aluminum toxicity to red spruce provide a preliminary indication that current high atmospheric inputs of the strong anions SO4 and NO3 to acidic soils may be adversely affecting growth and physiology of trees at the high-elevation site.