Woody biomass production lags stem-girth increase by over one month in coniferous forests
Henri E. Cuny
(1, 2)
,
Cyrille Rathgeber
(1)
,
David Frank
(2, 3)
,
Patrick Fonti
(2)
,
Harri Mäkinen
(4)
,
Peter Prislan
(5)
,
Sergio Rossi
(6, 7)
,
Edurne Martinez del Castillo
(8)
,
Filipe Campelo
(9)
,
Hanuš Vavrčík
(10)
,
Jesus Julio Camarero
(11)
,
Marina V. Bryukhanova
(12, 13)
,
Tuula Jyske
(4)
,
Jožica Gričar
(5)
,
Vladimír Gryc
(10)
,
Martin de Luis
(8)
,
Joana Vieira
(9)
,
Alexander V. Kirdyanov
(12, 13)
,
Walter Oberhuber
(14)
,
Vaclav Treml
(15)
,
Jian-Guo Huang
(7)
,
Xiaoxia Li
(7)
,
Irene Swidrak
(14)
,
Annie Deslauriers
(6)
,
Eryuan Liang
(7)
,
Pekka Nöjd
(4)
,
Andreas Gruber
(14)
,
Cristina Nabais
(9)
,
Hubert Morin
(6)
,
Cornelia Krause
(6)
,
Gregory King
(16)
,
Meriem Fournier
(1)
1
LERFoB -
Laboratoire d'Etudes des Ressources Forêt-Bois
2 Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
3 OCCR - Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
4 LUKE - Natural Resources Institute Finland
5 Slovenian Forestry Institute
6 UQAC - Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
7 CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Changchun Branch]
8 University of Zaragoza - Universidad de Zaragoza [Zaragoza]
9 UC - University of Coimbra [Portugal]
10 MENDELU - Mendel University in Brno
11 IPE - Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia = Pyrenean Institute of Ecology
12 V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest
13 SibFU - Siberian Federal University
14 Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck - University of Innsbruck
15 CU - Charles University [Prague]
16 Queen's University [Kingston, Canada]
2 Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
3 OCCR - Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
4 LUKE - Natural Resources Institute Finland
5 Slovenian Forestry Institute
6 UQAC - Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
7 CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Changchun Branch]
8 University of Zaragoza - Universidad de Zaragoza [Zaragoza]
9 UC - University of Coimbra [Portugal]
10 MENDELU - Mendel University in Brno
11 IPE - Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia = Pyrenean Institute of Ecology
12 V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest
13 SibFU - Siberian Federal University
14 Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck - University of Innsbruck
15 CU - Charles University [Prague]
16 Queen's University [Kingston, Canada]
Henri E. Cuny
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 745171
- IdHAL : henri-cuny
- ORCID : 0000-0003-2098-5583
- IdRef : 174105967
Cyrille Rathgeber
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 181839
- IdHAL : cyrille-rathgeber
- ORCID : 0000-0001-7359-8320
- IdRef : 07160118X
Abstract
Wood is the main terrestrial biotic reservoir for long-term carbon sequestration(1), and its formation in trees consumes around 15% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions each year(2). However, the seasonal dynamics of woody biomass production cannot be quantified from eddy covariance or satellite observations. As such, our understanding of this key carbon cycle component, and its sensitivity to climate, remains limited. Here, we present high-resolution cellular based measurements of wood formation dynamics in three coniferous forest sites in northeastern France, performed over a period of 3 years. We show that stem woody biomass production lags behind stem-girth increase by over 1 month. We also analyse more general phenological observations of xylem tissue formation in Northern Hemisphere forests and find similar time lags in boreal, temperate, subalpine and Mediterranean forests. These time lags question the extension of the equivalence between stem size increase and woody biomass production to intra-annual time scales(3-6). They also suggest that these two growth processes exhibit differential sensitivities to local environmental conditions. Indeed, in the well-watered French sites the seasonal dynamics of stem-girth increase matched the photoperiod cycle, whereas those of woody biomass production closely followed the seasonal course of temperature. We suggest that forecasted changes in the annual cycle of climatic factors(7) may shift the phase timing of stem size increase and woody biomass production in the future.