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Effects of climate, tree age, dominance and growth on δ15N in young pinewoods

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Abstract

Needles, annual rings from basal stem discs and bark of three dominant and three suppressed Pinus pinaster from a 12-year-old pine stand (naturally regenerated after a wildfire) were analysed to study the effects of climate, tree age, dominance, and growth on tree δ15N. Foliar-N concentration in dominant pines (0.780–1.474% N) suggested that soil N availability was sufficient, a circumstance that allowed isotopic discrimination by plants and (greater) differences in δ15N among trees. The δ15N decreases in the order wood (−0.20 to +6.12‰), bark (−1.84 to +1.85‰) and needles (−2.13 to +0.77‰). In all trees, before dominance establishment (years 1–8), the N stored in each ring displayed a decreasing δ15N tendency as the tree grows, which is mainly due to a more “closed” N cycle or an increasing importance of N sources with lower δ15N. After dominance establishment (years 9–12), wood δ15N values were higher in suppressed than in dominant trees (2.62 and 1.46‰, respectively; P < 0.01) while the reverse was true for needles and bark; simultaneously, the absolute amount of N stored by suppressed pines in successive rings decreased, suggesting a lower soil N assimilation. These results could be explained by lignification acting as major N source for needles in suppressed pines because products released and reallocated during lignification are 15N-depleted compared with the source. According to principal component analysis, wood δ15N appears associated with wood N concentration and precipitation during the growing season, but clearly opposed to age, basal area increment and mean temperature in spring and summer.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Marcos Godoy for technical assistance in the laboratory. This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science through the project number AGL2001-3871-C02-02. The participation of A. Couto in this research was supported by a CSIC-Xunta de Galicia fellowship. The isotopic ratio mass spectrometer was partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund (EU).

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  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Agrobiológicas de Galicia, CSIC, Apartado 122, 15780, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    A. Couto-Vázquez & S. J. González-Prieto

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  1. A. Couto-Vázquez
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Correspondence to S. J. González-Prieto.

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Communicated by S. Leavitt.

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Couto-Vázquez, A., González-Prieto, S.J. Effects of climate, tree age, dominance and growth on δ15N in young pinewoods. Trees 24, 507–514 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-010-0420-2

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