Abstract
Climatic changes in Arctic regions are likely to have significant impacts on vegetation composition and physiological responses of different plant types, with implications for the regional carbon (C) cycle. Here, we explore differences in allocation and turnover of assimilated C in two Subarctic tundra communities. We used an in situ 13C pulse at mid-summer in Swedish Lapland to investigate C allocation and turnover in four contrasting tundra plant communities. We found a high rate of turnover of assimilated C in leaf tissues of Betula nana and graminoid vegetation at the height of the growing season, with a mean residence time of pulse-derived 13C of 1.1 and 0.7 days, respectively. One week after the pulse, c. 20 and 15%, respectively, of assimilated label-C remained in leaf biomass, representing most likely allocation to structural biomass. For the perennial leaf tissue of the graminoid communities, a remainder of approximately 5% of the pulse-derived C was still traceable after 1 year, whereas none was detectable in Betula foliage. The results indicate a relatively fast C turnover and small belowground allocation during the active growing season of recent assimilates in graminoid communities, with comparatively slower turnover and greater investment in belowground allocation by B. nana vegetation.
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Acknowledgments
Lorna Street is thanked for dedicated support during field measurements throughout this campaign. Jon Evans of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is kindly acknowledged for permission to use meteorological data in Fig. 3. We would also like to thank Rafael Poyatos López, Gemma Gornall, Phil Wookey, Paul Stoy and many other members of the ABACUS consortium who supported this work with help during the York Mobile Lab deployment and plant biomass and soil harvests. The UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is acknowledged for funding the experiments under the ABACUS Arctic-IPY consortium and through grant NE/E004512/1.
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Subke, JA., Heinemeyer, A., Vallack, H.W. et al. Fast assimilate turnover revealed by in situ 13CO2 pulse-labelling in Subarctic tundra. Polar Biol 35, 1209–1219 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1167-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1167-6