δ13C and Water Use Efficiency in the Glucose of Annual Pine Tree Rings as Ecological Indicators of the Forests in the Most Industrialized Part of Poland.

Barbara M Sensuła

doi:10.1007/s11270-016-2750-1

Abstract

In this study, stable carbon isotope ratios in the glucose samples were extracted from annual pine tree rings as bio-indicators of contemporary environmental changes in heavily urbanized areas. The sampling sites were located in close proximity to point source pollution emitters, such as a heat and power plant “Łaziska” and steelworks “Huta Katowice” in Silesia (Poland). The analysed samples covered the time span from 1975 to 2012 AD, the time period of the development of industrialization and the modernization in the industrial sector in Poland, similarly as in Eastern Europe. This modernization was connected with EU legislation and the implementation of restrictive governmental regulations on emissions. The carbon isotope discrimination has been proposed as a method for evaluating water use efficiency. The measurements of carbon isotopes were carried out using the continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer coupled to the elemental analyser. The δ13C values were calibrated relative to the C-3 and C-5 international standards. Diffuse air pollution caused the variation in δ13C and iWUE (the ratio between CO2 assimilation and stomatal conductance) dependency on the type of emitter and some local effects of other human activities. In this study, the first results of water use efficiency in glucose are presented. In the period of time from 1975 to 2012, the water use efficiency values increased from 98 to 122 μmol/mol.

Highlights

Most of the modernizations in different plants and the industrial sector in Eastern Europe are connected with EU legislation and the implementation of restrictive governmental regulations on emissions
The objectives of this study were to determine the following: (1) the pattern of variation of carbon stable isotope composition in glucose of pines growing along the industrialized part of Poland, (2) spatial variability and trends in intrinsic water-use efficiency and the ratio of photosynthesis to stomata conductance in contemporary forests located across the most industrialized and important part of Poland, where large parts of the population do not live in a healthy environment, according to current standards and (3) whether increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and changing climate increased iWUE at the glucose level
Pattern of spatial and short-temporal variability of δ13C, Δ13C and water use efficiency in glucose samples received from annual pine tree rings growing in

Summary

Introduction

Most of the modernizations in different plants and the industrial sector in Eastern Europe are connected with EU legislation and the implementation of restrictive governmental regulations on emissions. In Poland, as in most countries all over the world, the systematic long-term monitoring of air pollutants is generally restricted to rural point source regions in urban areas. Even for those areas, air pollution emissions were not continually monitored, and data is only available for the last decades. The pollution impacts human, plants and animal life and different ecosystem processes. Tree ring series that present long-term data can be used to analyse the ecosystem changes caused by human activities

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