ALBERT

Description: Winter CO2 fluxes represent an important component of the annual carbon budget in northern ecosystems. Understanding winter respiration processes and their responses to climate change is also central to our ability to assess terrestrial carbon cycle and climate feedbacks in the future. The factors influencing the spatial and temporal pattern of winter respiration (RECO) of northern ecosystems are poorly understood. For this reason, we analyzed eddy covariance flux data sets from 57 ecosystem sites ranging from ~35° N to ~70° N. Deciduous forests carry the highest winter RECO ratios (9.7–10.5 g C m−2 d−1), when winter is defined as the period during which air temperature remained below 0 °C. By contrast, wetland ecosystems had the lowest winter RECO (2.1–2.3 g C m−2 d−1). Evergreen needle-leaved forests, grasslands and croplands were characterized by intermediate winter RECO values of 7.4–7.9 g C m−2 d−1, 5.8–6.0 g C m−2 d−1, and 5.2–5.3 g C m−2 d−1, respectively. Cross site analysis showed that winter air or soil temperature, and the seasonal amplitude of the leaf area index inferred from satellite observation, which is a proxy for the amount of litter available for RECO in the subsequent winter, are the two main factors determining spatial pattern of daily mean winter RECO. Together, these two factors can explain 71% (Tair, ΔLAI) or 69% (Tsoil, ΔLAI) of the spatial variance of winter RECO across the 57 sites. The spatial temperature sensitivity of daily winter RECO was determined empirically by fitting an Arrhenius relationship to the data. The activation energy parameter of this relationship was found to decrease at increasing soil temperature at a rate of 83.1 KJ ° C-1 (r = −0.32, p 〈 0.05), which implies a possible dampening of the increase in winter RECO due to global warming. The interannual variability of winter RECO is better explained by soil temperature than by air temperature, likely due to the insulating effects of snow cover. The increase in winter RECO with a 1 °C warming based calculated from the spatial analysis was almost that double that calculated from the temporal analysis. Thus, models that calculate the effects of warming on RECO based only on spatial analyses could be over-estimating the impact.

Description: Thermal adaptation of gross primary production and ecosystem respiration has been well documented over broad thermal gradients. However, no study has examined their interaction as a function of temperature, i.e. the thermal responses of net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE). In this study, we constructed temperature response curves of NEE against temperature using 380 site-years of eddy covariance data at 72 forest, grassland and shrubland ecosystems located at latitudes ranging from ~29° N to 64° N. The response curves were used to define two critical temperatures: transition temperature (Tb) at which ecosystem transferring from carbon source to sink and optimal temperature (To) at which carbon uptake is maximized. Tb was strongly correlated with annual mean air temperature. To was strongly correlated with mean temperature during the net carbon uptake period across the study ecosystems. Our results suggested that ecosystem CO2 flux switched from source to sink when air temperature reached annual mean temperature in spring and reached maximum uptake at mean temperature of the net carbon uptake period. Our results imply that the net ecosystem exchange of carbon adapt to the temperature across the geographical range due to intrinsic connections between vegetation primary production and ecosystem respiration.

Description: The fate of photosynthetic products within the plant-soil continuum determines how long the reduced carbon resides within the ecosystem and when it returns back to the atmosphere in the form of respiratory CO2. We have tested the possibility of measuring natural variation in δ13C to disentangle potential times needed to transfer carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis down to roots and, in general, to belowground up to its further release in the form of soil respiration into the atmosphere in a beech (Fagus sylvatica) forest. For these purposes we have measured the variation in stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions in plant material and in soil respired CO2 every three hours for three consequent days. Possible steps and different signs of post-photosynthetic fractionation during carbon translocation were also identified. A 12 h-periodicity was observed for variation in δ13C in soluble sugars in the top crown leaves and it can be explained by starch day/night dynamics in synthesis and breakdown and by stomatal limitations under elevated vapour pressure deficits. Photosynthetic products were transported down the trunk and mixed with older carbon pools, therefore causing the dampening of the δ13C signal variation. The strongest periodicity of 24 h was found in δ13C in soil respiration indicating changes in root contribution to the total CO2 efflux. Nevertheless, it was possible to identify the speed of carbon translocation through the plant-soil continuum. A period of 24 h was needed to transfer the C assimilated by photosynthesis from the top crown leaves to the tree trunk at breast height and additional 3 h for further respiration of that C by roots and soil microorganisms and its to subsequent diffusion back to the atmosphere.

Description: Thermal adaptation of gross primary production and ecosystem respiration has been well documented over broad thermal gradients. However, no study has examined their interaction as a function of temperature, i.e. the thermal responses of net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE). In this study, we constructed temperature response curves of NEE against temperature using 380 site-years of eddy covariance data at 72 forest, grassland and shrubland ecosystems located at latitudes ranging from ~29° N to 64° N. The response curves were used to define two critical temperatures: transition temperature (Tb) at which ecosystem transfer from carbon source to sink and optimal temperature (To) at which carbon uptake is maximized. Tb was strongly correlated with annual mean air temperature. To was strongly correlated with mean temperature during the net carbon uptake period across the study ecosystems. Our results imply that the net ecosystem exchange of carbon adapts to the temperature across the geographical range due to intrinsic connections between vegetation primary production and ecosystem respiration.

Description: The fate of photosynthetic products within the plant-soil continuum determines how long the reduced carbon resides within the ecosystem and when it returns back to the atmosphere in the form of respiratory CO2. We have tested the possibility of measuring natural variation in δ13C and δ18O to disentangle the potential times needed to transfer carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis down to trunk, roots and, in general, to belowground up to its further release in the form of soil respiration into the atmosphere in a beech (Fagus sylvatica) forest. We have measured the variation in stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions in plant material and in soil respired CO2 every three hours for three consecutive days. Possible steps and different signs of post-photosynthetic fractionation during carbon translocation were also identified. A 12 h-periodicity was observed for variation in δ13C in soluble sugars in the top crown leaves and it can be explained by starch day/night dynamics in synthesis and breakdown and by stomatal limitations under elevated vapour pressure deficits. Photosynthetic products were transported down the trunk and mixed with older carbon pools, therefore causing the dampening of the δ13C signal variation. The strongest periodicity of 24 h was found in δ13C in soil respiration indicating changes in root contribution to the total CO2 efflux. Other non-biological causes like diffusion fractionation and advection induced by gas withdrawn from the measurement chamber complicate data interpretation on this step of C transfer path. Nevertheless, it was possible to identify the speed of carbohydrates' translocation from the point of assimilation to the trunk breast height because leaf-imprinted enrichment of δ18O in soluble sugars was less modified along the downward transport and was well related to environmental parameters potentially linked to stomatal conductance. The speed of carbohydrates translocation from the site of assimilation to the trunk at breast height was estimated to be in the range of 0.3–0.4 m h−1.