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The response of carbon assimilation and storage to long-term drought in tropical trees is dependent on light availability

Authors :
Tomas F. Domingues
Andre L. Giles
Leandro Valle Ferreira
Maurizio Mencuccini
Ingrid Coughlin
Patrícia de Britto Costa
Rafael S. Oliveira
Antonio Carlos Lola da Costa
David C. Bartholomew
Alex A. R. Oliveira
Paulo R. L. Bittencourt
João de Athaydes Silva Junior
R. C. Miatto
Patrick Meir
Lucy Rowland
Steel Silva Vasconcelos
Lucy Rowland, University of Exeter
Antonio C. L. da Costa, UFPA / MPEG
Rafael S. Oliveira, UNICAMP
Paulo R. L. Bittencourt, UNICAMP / University of Exeter
André L. Giles, UNICAMP
Ingrid Coughlin, USP / Australian National University
Patricia de Britto Costa, UNICAMP
David Bartholomew, University of Exeter
Tomas F. Domingues, USP
Raquel C. Miatto, USP
Leandro V. Ferreira, MPEG
STEEL SILVA VASCONCELOS, CPATU
Joao A. S. Junior, UFPA
Alex A. R. Oliveira, Australian National University
Maurizio Mencuccini, CREAF, Campus UAB / ICREA
Patrick Meir, USP / University of Edinburgh.
Source :
Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA-Alice), Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), instacron:EMBRAPA, Rowland, L, Costa, A C L, Oliveira, R S, Bittencourt, P R L, Giles, A L, Coughlin, I, Britto Costa, P, Bartholomew, D, Domingues, T F, Miatto, R C, Ferreira, L V, Vasconcelos, S S, Junior, J A S, Oliveira, A A R, Mencuccini, M & Meir, P 2021, ' The response of carbon assimilation and storage to long-term drought in tropical trees is dependent on light availability ', Functional Ecology, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 43-53 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13689
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

Whether tropical trees acclimate to long‐term drought stress remains unclear. This uncertainty is amplified if drought stress is accompanied by changes in other drivers such as the increases in canopy light exposure that might be induced by tree mortality or other disturbances. Photosynthetic capacity, leaf respiration, non‐structural carbohydrate (NSC) storage and stomatal conductance were measured on 162 trees at the world's longest running (15 years) tropical forest drought experiment. We test whether surviving trees have altered strategies for carbon storage and carbon use in the drier and elevated light conditions present following drought‐related tree mortality. Relative to control trees, the surviving trees experiencing the drought treatment showed functional responses including: (a) moderately reduced photosynthetic capacity; (b) increased total leaf NSC; and (c) a switch from starch to soluble sugars as the main store of branch NSC. This contrasts with earlier findings at this experiment of no change in photosynthetic capacity or NSC storage. The changes detected here only occurred in the subset of drought‐stressed trees with canopies exposed to high radiation and were absent in trees with less‐exposed canopies and also in the community average. In contrast to previous results acquired through less intensive species sampling from this experiment, we also observe no species‐average drought‐induced change in leaf respiration. Our results suggest that long‐term responses to drought stress are strongly influenced by a tree's full‐canopy light environment and therefore that disturbance‐induced changes in stand density and dynamics are likely to substantially impact tropical forest responses to climate change. We also demonstrate that, while challenging, intensive sampling is essential in tropical forests to avoid sampling biases caused by limited taxonomic coverage. Made available in DSpace on 2021-01-13T09:05:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1365-2435.13689-2021.pdf: 1614823 bytes, checksum: 0ea046c5e0666a2e409e93fe849fd23e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021 Publicado online em 29 set. 2020.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
13652435
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA-Alice), Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), instacron:EMBRAPA, Rowland, L, Costa, A C L, Oliveira, R S, Bittencourt, P R L, Giles, A L, Coughlin, I, Britto Costa, P, Bartholomew, D, Domingues, T F, Miatto, R C, Ferreira, L V, Vasconcelos, S S, Junior, J A S, Oliveira, A A R, Mencuccini, M & Meir, P 2021, ' The response of carbon assimilation and storage to long-term drought in tropical trees is dependent on light availability ', Functional Ecology, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 43-53 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13689
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....bc9c5c3a1290f1a8c97041459364faca