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Carbon Reserves as Indicators for Carbon Limitation in Trees

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Progress in Botany

Part of the book series: Progress in Botany ((BOTANY,volume 76))

Abstract

In view of the current increase of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, the question if carbon is a limiting resource for tree growth or not gained large attention over the last decades. This review summarizes how tissue concentrations of nonstructural carbon (C) reserves compounds can be used to assess the C-supply status of trees. Studies that investigated the tissue concentrations of C-reserves and their seasonal variations in trees growing under natural conditions suggested that tree growth and reproduction are currently not limited by photosynthesis under benign or non-stressful climatic conditions. The comparative analysis of C-reserves in trees exposed to environmental stresses like cold temperatures and drought revealed that against previous assumption, the stress-induced decline of growth is also not caused by insufficient C-assimilation. However, recent studies on the C-relation in dying trees exposed to sustained drought indicated organ-specific different reactions of tissue C-reserve concentrations, probably as a result of impaired C-transport and reserve re-mobilization under drought stress.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all colleagues, students, and field helpers who contributed to my research over the last years. Especially I thank Christian Körner, Anna Sala, Frida Piper, Alex Fajardo, and Qingmin Han for the fruitful collaborations in experiments and field surveys about the C-supply status of trees. During the time of writing this manuscript, I received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) grant No. 233399 (project ‘TREELIM’ to Christian Körner).

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

    Günter Hoch

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  1. Günter Hoch
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Correspondence to Günter Hoch .

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  1. TU Darmstadt FB Biologie, Darmstadt, Germany

    Ulrich Lüttge

  2. Universität Bielefeld W4-105 Lehrstuhl Experimentelle Ökologie, Bielefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Wolfram Beyschlag

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Hoch, G. (2015). Carbon Reserves as Indicators for Carbon Limitation in Trees. In: Lüttge, U., Beyschlag, W. (eds) Progress in Botany. Progress in Botany, vol 76. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08807-5_13

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