Dataset Information

Seasonal variations in photosynthesis, intrinsic water-use efficiency and stable isotope composition of poplar leaves in a short-rotation plantation.

ABSTRACT: Photosynthetic carbon assimilation and transpirational water loss play an important role in the yield and the carbon sequestration potential of bioenergy-devoted cultures of fast-growing trees. For six poplar (Populus) genotypes in a short-rotation plantation, we observed significant seasonal and genotypic variation in photosynthetic parameters, intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi) and leaf stable isotope composition (?13C and ?18O). The poplars maintained high photosynthetic rates (between 17.8 and 26.9??mol?m(-2)?s(-1) depending on genotypes) until late in the season, in line with their fast-growth habit. Seasonal fluctuations were mainly explained by variations in soil water availability and by stomatal limitation upon photosynthesis. Stomatal rather than biochemical limitation was confirmed by the constant intrinsic photosynthetic capacity (Vcmax) during the growing season, closely related to leaf nitrogen (N) content. Intrinsic water-use efficiency scaled negatively with carbon isotope discrimination (?13Cbl) and positively with the ratio between mesophyll diffusion conductance (gm) and stomatal conductance. The WUEi-?13Cbl relationship was partly influenced by gm. There was a trade-off between WUEi and photosynthetic N-use efficiency, but only when soil water availability was limiting. Our results suggest that seasonal fluctuations in relation to soil water availability should be accounted for in future modelling studies assessing the carbon sequestration potential and the water-use efficiency of woody energy crops.

SUBMITTER: Broeckx LS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4131770 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Seasonal variations in photosynthesis, intrinsic water-use efficiency and stable isotope composition of poplar leaves in a short-rotation plantation.

Broeckx L S LS Fichot R R Verlinden M S MS Ceulemans R R

Tree physiology 20140728 7

Photosynthetic carbon assimilation and transpirational water loss play an important role in the yield and the carbon sequestration potential of bioenergy-devoted cultures of fast-growing trees. For six poplar (Populus) genotypes in a short-rotation plantation, we observed significant seasonal and genotypic variation in photosynthetic parameters, intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi) and leaf stable isotope composition (δ13C and δ18O). The poplars maintained high photosynthetic rates (between 17. ...[more]

PMID: 25074859

Similar Datasets

Project description:While afforestation mitigates climate concerns, the impact of afforestation on ecological assembly processes and multiple soil functions (multifunctionality) in afforested areas remains unclear. The Xiong'an New Area plantation forests (Pinus and Sophora forests) in North China were selected to examine the effects of plantation types across four distinct seasons on soil microbiomes. Three functional categories (nutrient stocks, organic matter decomposition, and microbial functional genes) of multifunctionality and the average (net) multifunctionality were quantified. All these categories are directly related to soil functions. The results showed that net soil multifunctionality as a broad function did not change seasonally, unlike other narrow functional categories. Bacterial communities were deterministically (variable selection and homogenous selection) structured, whereas the stochastic process of dispersal limitation was mainly responsible for the assembly and turnover of fungal and protist communities. In Pinus forests, winter initiates a sudden shift from deterministic to stochastic processes in bacterial community assembly, accompanied by decreased Shannon diversity and heightened nutrient cycling (nutrient stocks and organic matter decomposition). This indicates the potential vulnerability of deterministic assembly to seasonal fluctuations, particularly in environments rich in nutrients. The results predicted that protist community composition was uniquely structured with C-related functional activities relative to bacterial and fungal β-diversity variations, which were mostly explained by seasonal variations. Our study highlighted the importance of the protist phagocytosis process on soil microbial interactions through the predicted impact of protist α-diversity on microbial cooccurrence network parameters. This association might be driven by the high abundance of protist consumers as the main predators of bacterial and fungal lineages in our sampling plots. Our findings reveal that the complexity of microbial co-occurrence interactions was considerably higher in spring, perhaps attributing thermal variability and increased resource availability within spring that foster microbial diversity and network complexity. This study contributes to local ecosystem prospects to model the behavior of soil biota seasonally and their implied effects on soil functioning and microbial assembly processes, which will benefit global-scale afforestation programs by promoting novel, precise, and rational plantation forests for future environmental sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Project description:BACKGROUND:While nitrogen and carbon stable isotope values can reflect ecological segregation, prey choice and spatial distribution in seabirds, the interpretation of bulk stable isotope values is frequently hampered by a lack of isotopic baseline data. In this study, we used compound-specific isotope analyses of amino acids (CSIA-AA) to overcome this constraint and to study interspecific differences, seasonal and historical changes in trophic positions of five seabird species, three penguins and two petrels, from a sub-Antarctic seabird community. RESULTS:CSIA-AA allowed comparing trophic positions of seabirds with temperate and polar distributions. Gentoo and Magellanic penguins had the highest trophic positions during the breeding season (3.7 and 3.9), but decreased these (2.9 and 3.3) during the feed-up for moult. Intra-specific differences were also detected in Thin-billed prions, where carbon isotope values clearly separated individuals with polar and temperate distributions, both in the breeding and interbreeding periods. Thin-billed prions that foraged in polar waters had lower trophic positions (3.2) than conspecifics foraging in temperate waters (3.8). We further investigated historical changes by comparing museum samples with samples collected recently. Our pilot study suggests that Rockhopper penguins, Magellanic penguins and Thin-billed prions with temperate non-breeding distributions had retained their trophic levels over a 90-100 year period, while Gentoo penguins and Thin-billed prions with polar non-breeding distributions had decreased trophic levels compared to historical samples. In contrast, Wilson's storm-petrels had slightly increased trophic levels compared to samples taken in 1924-1930. CONCLUSIONS:We applied compound-specific stable isotope analyses across a range of contexts, from intra-specific comparisons between stages of the breeding cycle to inter-specific seabird community analysis that would not have been possible using bulk stable isotope analyses alone due to differences in isotopic baselines.

Dataset Information

Seasonal variations in photosynthesis, intrinsic water-use efficiency and stable isotope composition of poplar leaves in a short-rotation plantation.

Publications

Seasonal variations in photosynthesis, intrinsic water-use efficiency and stable isotope composition of poplar leaves in a short-rotation plantation.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets