Trading Water for Carbon: Maintaining Photosynthesis at the Cost of Increased Water Loss During High Temperatures in a Temperate Forest

Anne Griebel; Lauren T Bennett; Daniel Metzen; Elise Pendall; Patrick NJ Lane; Stefan K Arndt

Journal article

Trading Water for Carbon: Maintaining Photosynthesis at the Cost of Increased Water Loss During High Temperatures in a Temperate Forest

Anne Griebel, Lauren T Bennett, Daniel Metzen, Elise Pendall, Patrick NJ Lane, Stefan K Arndt

Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences | American Geophysical Union | Published : 2020

DOI: 10.1029/2019JG005239

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Abstract

Carbon and water fluxes are often assumed to be coupled as a result of stomatal regulation during dry conditions. However, recent observations evidenced increased transpiration rates during isolated heatwaves across a range of eucalypt species under experimental and natural conditions, with inconsistent effects on photosynthesis (ranging from increases to stark declines). To improve the empirical basis for understanding carbon and water fluxes in forests under hotter and drier climates, we measured the water use of dominant trees and ecosystem‐scale carbon and water exchange in a temperate eucalypt forest over three summer seasons. The forest maintained photosynthesis within 16% of baseline ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Lauren Bennett Author

Patrick Lane Author

Stefan Arndt Author

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Funding Acknowledgements

We thank John Collopy and Julio Najera-Umana for assisting us with the installation of the field equipment. This study was partly funded by TERN-OzFlux and TERN-SuperSites, the Australian Research Council (ARC) grants LE0882936 and DP120101735 and the Integrated Forest Ecosystem Research program supported by the Victorian Department of Environment Land, Water, and Planning. The flux tower data are available at the OzFlux portal (http://data.ozflux.org.au/portal/home) and the tree water use data are available at Sapfluxnet (http://sapfluxnet.creaf.cat).We appreciate substantive input from seven anonymous reviewers, which significantly improved the quality of the manuscript.