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A case study on the vertical and diurnal variation of stem CO2 effluxes in an Amazonian forest tree

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Abstract

Key message

Dial and vertical patterns of stem CO2 efflux are highly variable in tropical trees. Thus, tree level respiratory carbon fluxes remain a defective measure within the forest carbon budget.

Abstract

Vertical profile measurements of stem CO2 efflux (Estem) were conducted on a Scleronema micranthum tree growing in an old growth terra firme forest in the Central Amazon. A commonly applied portable closed dynamic chamber system was used to assess vertical and diurnal variations of Estem at 0.75, 1.3, 3.5, 7 and 14 m tree trunk height. The highest mean Estem was measured at the tree base at 0.75 m. Averaging all measurements over the entire study period, mean effluxes constantly decreased to a height of 3.5 m and increased again the further the measurements reached to the tree top. On average Estem was higher at night and started to decrease with the ascending xylem sap and elevating air temperature in the early morning. Estem did not follow any predictable pattern during the rest of the day, especially at the higher parts of the tree stem. Predicting autotrophic respiratory processes in tropical tree stems remains a challenge and is one of the unsecure estimates in the forest carbon budget in terrestrial tropical ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jeff Chambers for very helpful discussions about trunk respiration in the beginning of this study and the hint where to find parts of his old scaffold tower in the forest. I am deeply in debt to Antonio who helped to erect the tower in a very adventurous way.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Silviculture, Universität Freiburg, Tennenbacherstr. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Norbert Kunert

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  1. Norbert Kunert
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Correspondence to Norbert Kunert.

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I declare that I have no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by H. Pfanz.

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Kunert, N. A case study on the vertical and diurnal variation of stem CO2 effluxes in an Amazonian forest tree. Trees 32, 913–917 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-018-1680-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-018-1680-5

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