Dataset Information

A reassessment of carbon content in tropical trees.

ABSTRACT: Accurate knowledge of carbon (C) content in live wood is essential for quantifying tropical forest C stocks, yet generic assumptions (such as biomass consisting of 50% carbon on a weight/weight basis) remain widely used despite being supported by little chemical analysis. Empirical data from stem cores of 59 Panamanian rainforest tree species demonstrate that wood C content is highly variable among co-occurring species, with an average (47.4±2.51% S.D.) significantly lower than widely assumed values. Prior published values have neglected to account for volatile C content of tropical woods. By comparing freeze- and oven-dried wood samples, we show that volatile C is non-negligible, and excluding the volatile fraction underestimates wood C content by 2.48±1.28% (S.D.) on average. Wood C content varied substantially among species (from 41.9-51.6%), but was neither strongly phylogenetically conserved, nor correlated to ecological (i.e. wood density, maximum tree height) or demographic traits (i.e. relative growth rate, mortality rate). Overall, assuming generic C fractions in tropical wood overestimates forest C stocks by ?3.3-5.3%, a non-trivial margin of error leading to overestimates of 4.1-6.8 Mg C ha(-1) in a 50-ha forest dynamics plot on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. In addition to addressing other sources of error in tropical forest C accounting, such as uncertainties in allometric models and belowground biomass, compilation and use of species-specific C fractions for tropical tree species would substantially improve both local and global estimates of terrestrial C stocks and fluxes.

SUBMITTER: Martin AR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3157388 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A reassessment of carbon content in tropical trees.

Martin Adam R AR Thomas Sean C SC

PloS one 20110817 8

Accurate knowledge of carbon (C) content in live wood is essential for quantifying tropical forest C stocks, yet generic assumptions (such as biomass consisting of 50% carbon on a weight/weight basis) remain widely used despite being supported by little chemical analysis. Empirical data from stem cores of 59 Panamanian rainforest tree species demonstrate that wood C content is highly variable among co-occurring species, with an average (47.4±2.51% S.D.) significantly lower than widely assumed va ...[more]

PMID: 21858157

Similar Datasets

Project description:Dry periods are predicted to become more frequent and severe in the future in some parts of the tropics, including Amazonia, potentially causing reduced productivity, higher tree mortality and increased emissions of stored carbon. Using a long-term (12 year) through-fall exclusion (TFE) experiment in the tropics, we test the hypothesis that trees produce leaves adapted to cope with higher levels of water stress, by examining the following leaf characteristics: area, thickness, leaf mass per area, vein density, stomatal density, the thickness of palisade mesophyll, spongy mesophyll and both of the epidermal layers, internal cavity volume and the average cell sizes of the palisade and spongy mesophyll. We also test whether differences in leaf anatomy are consistent with observed differential drought-induced mortality responses among taxa, and look for relationships between leaf anatomy, and leaf water relations and gas exchange parameters. Our data show that trees do not produce leaves that are more xeromorphic in response to 12 years of soil moisture deficit. However, the drought treatment did result in increases in the thickness of the adaxial epidermis (TFE: 20.5 ± 1.5 µm, control: 16.7 ± 1.0 µm) and the internal cavity volume (TFE: 2.43 ± 0.50 mm3 cm-2, control: 1.77 ± 0.30 mm3 cm-2). No consistent differences were detected between drought-resistant and drought-sensitive taxa, although interactions occurred between drought-sensitivity status and drought treatment for the palisade mesophyll thickness (P = 0.034) and the cavity volume of the leaves (P = 0.025). The limited response to water deficit probably reflects a tight co-ordination between leaf morphology, water relations and photosynthetic properties. This suggests that there is little plasticity in these aspects of plant anatomy in these taxa, and that phenotypic plasticity in leaf traits may not facilitate the acclimation of Amazonian trees to the predicted future reductions in dry season water availability.

Dataset Information

A reassessment of carbon content in tropical trees.

Publications

A reassessment of carbon content in tropical trees.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets