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Comparing integrated stable isotope and eddy covariance estimates of water-use efficiency on a Mediterranean successional sequence

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Abstract

Water-use efficiency (WUE), thought to be a relevant trait for productivity and adaptation to water-limited environments, was estimated for three different ecosystems on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa: Mediterranean macchia (SMM), transition (STR) and abandoned agricultural (SAA) ecosystems, representing a successional series. Three independent approaches were used to study WUE: eddy covariance measurements, C isotope composition of ecosystem respired CO2, and C isotope discrimination (Δ) of leaf material (dry matter and soluble sugars). Seasonal variations in C–water relations and energy fluxes, compared in SMM and in SAA, were primarily dependent on the specific composition of each plant community. WUE of gross primary productivity was higher in SMM than in SAA at the beginning of the dry season. Both structural and fast-turnover leaf material were, on average, more enriched in 13C in SMM than SAA, indicating relatively higher stomatal control and WUE for the long-lived macchia species. This pattern corresponded to 13C-enriched respired CO2 in SMM compared to the other ecosystems. Conversely, most of the annual herbaceous SAA species (terophytes) showed a drought-escaping strategy, with relatively high stomatal conductance and low WUE. An ecosystem-integrated Δ value was weighted for each ecosystem on the abundance of different life forms, classified according to Raunkiar’s system. Agreement was found between ecosystem WUE calculated using eddy covariance and those estimated using integrated Δ approaches. Comparing the isotopic methods, Δ of leaf soluble sugars provided the most reliable proxy for short-term changes in photosynthetic discrimination and associated shifts in integrated canopy-level WUE along the successional series.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the PianosaLAB project, to the Director of the Porto Azzurro jail of the Ministry of Justice and to the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago. Special thanks are due to Filippo Di Gennaro, Alessandro Matese, Jacopo Primicerio, Francesco Sabatini, Piero Toscano and Alessandro Zaldei, for their contribution in maintaining the eddy covariance towers, and to Luciano Spaccino, for skilful assistance in plant and air collections and for the accurate execution of the isotope-ratio mass spectrometry analyses. We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their extremely constructive comments on the manuscript. This research was partially funded by the EU project CarboEurope IP (GOCE-CT-2003-505572) and partially by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche NITCAR project.

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Author notes

  1. Enrico Brugnoli

    Present address: Dipartimento Scienze del Sistema Terra e Tecnologie per l’Ambiente, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Piazzale Aldo Moro 7, 00185, Roma (RM), Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Biologia Agro-ambientale e Forestale (IBAF), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Salaria km 29,300, 00016, Monterotondo Scalo (RM), Italy

    Andrea Scartazza

  2. Istituto di Biometeorologia (IBIMET), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via G. Caproni 8, 50145, Firenze (FI), Italy

    Francesco Primo Vaccari & Franco Miglietta

  3. Divisione Impatti sull’Agricoltura, Foreste ed Ecosistemi Naturali Terrestri (IAFENT), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), Via Augusto Imperatore, 73100, Lecce (LE), Italy

    Teresa Bertolini

  4. Istituto per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali del Mediterraneo (ISAFoM), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Patacca 85, 80056, Ercolano (NA), Italy

    Paul Di Tommasi

  5. Istituto di Biologia Agro-ambientale e Forestale (IBAF), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via G. Marconi 2, 05010, Porano (TR), Italy

    Andrea Scartazza, Marco Lauteri & Enrico Brugnoli

  6. FoxLab (Forest and Wood), Fondazione E. Mach-Iasma, Via E. Mach 1, 380100, S. Michele all’Adige (TN), Italy

    Franco Miglietta

  7. Laboratory of Ecohydrology, Faculté ENAC, École Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Franco Miglietta

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  1. Andrea Scartazza
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Correspondence to Andrea Scartazza.

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Communicated by Ram Oren.

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Scartazza, A., Vaccari, F.P., Bertolini, T. et al. Comparing integrated stable isotope and eddy covariance estimates of water-use efficiency on a Mediterranean successional sequence. Oecologia 176, 581–594 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3027-2

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