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Defoliation reduces growth but not carbon reserves in Mediterranean Pinus pinaster trees

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Reduced growth but high NSC after severe defoliation of evergreen trees can be explained by three, non-exclusive processes: critical loss of non-C reserves, hormonal changes, and prioritisation of C storage over growth.

Abstract

In an attempt to simulate processionary moth impact on pines, we explored the extent to which late winter defoliation affects growth and carbon reserves in the following season. In separate treatments we removed 100, and 50 % of needles of whole trees and defoliated single branches in naturally grown, 2–3-m-tall Pinus pinaster trees in Italy. Shoot and stem growth (lateral shoot length and basal area increment, respectively) were substantially reduced after 100 % defoliation (−45 % for shoots, −84 % for stems). In 50 % defoliated trees only stem growth was reduced (−37 %), and in trees with a single branch defoliated, growth remained unaffected. Although substantial carbon and nitrogen reserves were removed from defoliated trees prior to bud break, non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) concentrations in branches and needles fell below control values only during the first half of the growing season, and considerable amounts of NSC persisted throughout the year. By the end of the dry and hot Mediterranean summer, NSC concentrations in branch xylem, branch phloem, previous year needles, stem sapwood and root xylem were similar among all treatments. Reduced growth and high late season NSC after defoliation can be explained by (1) a critical loss of reserves other than C (e.g. N and P), (2) hormonal changes which affected cambial activity, or (3) a prioritisation of carbon storage over growth, with all three mechanisms potentially contributing to the observed growth and NSC response.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to the Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Italy, (Ufficio Territoriale per la biodiversità di Lucca) for permitting this study in the Riserva Naturale di Montefalcone, Pisa, Italy. Further, we thank Pierangela de Benedetto, Cristina De Monte and Massimo Monti for their sustained help during the fieldwork. We further thank Armando Lenz and Martin Bader for statistical advice, Daniel Nelson for proofreading of the manuscript and the two anonymous referees for their very constructive and important comments on a previous version of this paper.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Schönbeinstrasse 6, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Elena Puri, Günter Hoch & Christian Körner

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  1. Elena Puri
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  2. Günter Hoch
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  3. Christian Körner
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Correspondence to Günter Hoch.

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Communicated by L. Gratani.

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Puri, E., Hoch, G. & Körner, C. Defoliation reduces growth but not carbon reserves in Mediterranean Pinus pinaster trees. Trees 29, 1187–1196 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-015-1199-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-015-1199-y

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