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Tree Physiology Advance Access originally published online on July 1, 2009
Tree Physiology 2009 29(9):1105-1116; doi:10.1093/treephys/tpp045
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Seasonal carbon storage and growth in Mediterranean tree seedlings under different water conditions

Virginia Sanz-Pérez1,2, Pilar Castro-Díez3 and Richard Joffre4

1 Instituto de Recursos Naturales, Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales, CSIC, Serrano 115, 28006 Madrid, Spain
2 Corresponding author (virginia.sanz{at}ccma.csic.es)
3 Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, E 28871 Madrid, Spain
4 Equipe DREAM, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175 CNRS, 1919 Route de Mende, F 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France


  Abstract

In all Mediterranean-type ecosystems, evergreen and deciduous trees differing in wood anatomy, growth pattern and leaf habit coexist, suggesting distinct adaptative responses to environmental constraints. This study examined the effects of summer water stress on carbon (C) storage and growth in seedlings of three coexisting Mediterranean trees that differed in phenology and wood anatomy characteristics: Quercus ilex subsp. ballota (Desf.) Samp., Quercus faginea Lam. and Pinus halepensis L. Seedlings were subjected to two levels of watering during two consecutive summers and achieved a minimum of –0.5 and –2.5 MPa of predawn water potential in the control and water stress treatment, respectively. Both Quercus species concentrated their growth in the early growing season, demanding higher C in early spring but replenishing C-stores in autumn. These species allocated more biomass to roots, having larger belowground starch and lipid reserves. Quercus species differed in seasonal storage dynamics from P. halepensis. This species allocated most of its C to aboveground growth, which occurred gradually during the growing season, leading to fewer C-reserves. Soluble sugar and starch concentrations sharply declined in August in P. halepensis, probably because reserves support respiration demands as this species closed stomata earlier under water stress. Drought reduced growth of the three species, mainly in Q. faginea and P. halepensis, but not C-reserves, suggesting that growth under water stress conditions is not limited by C-availability.

Keywords: biomass, drought, lipids, Pinus halepensis, Quercus faginea, Quercus ilex, soluble sugars, starch

Received June 1, 2008; Accepted June 1, 2009


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