Testing a dual isotope model to track carbon and water gas exchanges in a Mediterranean forest

doi:10.3832/ifor0491-002

Testing a dual isotope model to track carbon and water gas exchanges in a Mediterranean forest

F Ripullone⁽¹⁾ , MR Guerrieri⁽¹⁾, M Saurer⁽²⁾, R Siegwolf⁽²⁾, M Jäggi⁽²⁾, R Guarini⁽¹⁾, F Magnani⁽³⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 2, Issue 2, Pages 59-66 (2009)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0491-002
Published: Mar 18, 2009 - Copyright © 2009 SISEF

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Due to climate change, drier summers have been observed over the last ten years in Mediterranean areas. Increasing drought levels may have a different weight in influencing the stomatal versus photosynthetic activity of forests, altering the water-use efficiency (i.e., WUE, the amount of carbon gain per water lost) and, consequently, the global carbon balance. By combining leaf gas exchanges and leaf carbon/oxygen isotope measurements, we tested under Mediterranean conditions a semi-quantitative dual isotope model to track adjustments in stomatal conductance (g_s) and maximum CO₂ assimilation at saturating light (A_max) in response to changes in air and soil water availability. The experiment was established at Allumiere site (Rome, Italy) over the course of two consecutive years. There, we modified the amount of precipitation reaching the soil on water depleted (D) and watered (W) replicate plots (~100 m²) of an Arbutus unedo L. forest using a system of rain gutters and sprinklers, respectively. Changes in soil water availability affected g_s and A_max in parallel. As an application of the model, we found that, in response to reduced air and soil water availability, constant carbon (δ¹³C) and increasing oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotope values were consistent with a parallel decline of either g_s and A_max. As a result of parallel decline, WUE did not differ or only slightly differed between treatments, in contrast with most of the studies that found a wide-spread increase of WUE in response to enhanced drought. This study highlights the potentiality of the dual isotope model to provide insights of forest ecosystem functioning in Mediterranean environments.

Keywords

Carbon assimilation, Drought, Isotope model, Arbutus unedo, Stomatal conductance, Water-use efficiency

Authors’ address

(1)

Dept. of Crop System, Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Basilicata (Italy)

(2)

Paul Scherrer Institut, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Stable Isotope and Ecosystem Fluxes (Switzerland)

(3)

Dept. of Plant Cultivation, University of Bologna (Italy)

Corresponding author

F Ripullone
francesco.ripullone@unibas.it

Citation

Ripullone F, Guerrieri MR, Saurer M, Siegwolf R, Jäggi M, Guarini R, Magnani F (2009). Testing a dual isotope model to track carbon and water gas exchanges in a Mediterranean forest. iForest 2: 59-66. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0491-002

Academic Editor

Roberto Tognetti

Paper history

Received: Oct 13, 2008
Accepted: Feb 20, 2009

First online: Mar 18, 2009
Publication Date: Mar 18, 2009
Publication Time: 0.87 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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