Partial asynchrony of coniferous forest carbon sources and sinks at the intra-annual time scale.
Roberto SilvestroMaurizio MencucciniRaúl García-ValdésSerena AntonucciAlberto ArzacFranco BiondiValentina ButtòJesus Julio CamareroFilipe CampeloHervé CochardKatarina ČufarHenri E CunyMartin De LuisAnnie DeslauriersGuillaume DroletMarina V FontiPatrick FontiAlessio GiovannelliJožica GričarAndreas GruberVladimír GrycRossella GuerrieriAylin GüneyXiali GuoJian-Guo HuangTuula JyskeJakub KašparAlexander V KirdyanovTamir KleinAudrey LemayXiaoxia LiEryuan LiangAnna LintunenFeng LiuFabio LombardiQianqian MaHarri MäkinenRayees Ahmad MalikEdurne Martinez Del CastilloJordi Martínez-VilaltaStefan MayrHubert MorinCristina NabaisPekka NöjdWalter OberhuberJosé M OlanoAndrew P OuimetteTeemu V S PaljakkaMikko PeltoniemiRichard L PetersPing RenPeter PrislanCyrille B K RathgeberAnna SalaAntonio SaracinoLuigi SaulinoPauliina Schiestl-AaltoVladimir V ShishovAlexia StokesRaman SukumarJean-Daniel SylvainRoberto TognettiVáclav TremlJosef UrbanHanuš VavrčíkJoana VieiraGeorg von ArxYan WangBao YangQiao ZengShaokang ZhangEmanuele ZiacoSergio RossiPublished in: Nature communications (2024)
As major terrestrial carbon sinks, forests play an important role in mitigating climate change. The relationship between the seasonal uptake of carbon and its allocation to woody biomass remains poorly understood, leaving a significant gap in our capacity to predict carbon sequestration by forests. Here, we compare the intra-annual dynamics of carbon fluxes and wood formation across the Northern hemisphere, from carbon assimilation and the formation of non-structural carbon compounds to their incorporation in woody tissues. We show temporally coupled seasonal peaks of carbon assimilation (GPP) and wood cell differentiation, while the two processes are substantially decoupled during off-peak periods. Peaks of cambial activity occur substantially earlier compared to GPP, suggesting the buffer role of non-structural carbohydrates between the processes of carbon assimilation and allocation to wood. Our findings suggest that high-resolution seasonal data of ecosystem carbon fluxes, wood formation and the associated physiological processes may reduce uncertainties in carbon source-sink relationships at different spatial scales, from stand to ecosystem levels.