Comparing carbon isotope composition of bulk wood and holocellulose fromQuercus cerris,Fraxinus ornusandPinus radiatatree rings

Abstract

Tree-ring δ13C is widely employed in ecophysiological studies, because it represents an integrated proxy of the ratio between photosynthesis (A) and stomatal conductance (g), which expresses the intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), strongly affected by the environmental conditions experienced by the plant during its life span. Tree-ring δ13C also reflects long term variations of atmospheric CO2 concentration and of its carbon isotope composition, partly due to increasing anthropogenic emissions. Carbon isotope abundances in tree rings can be assessed on bulk wood as well as on wood biochemical components, wich show different δ13C values because of secondary discrimination during biosynthesis. We present the results of a comparison between δ13C values of bulk wood and holocellulose samples obtained from the last three (1999, 2000 and 2001) annual growth rings of two hardwood (Quercus cerris L. and Fraxinus ornus L. and one conifer (Pinus radiata D. Don, species. We found that 13C values differed significantly among tree species, both in the case of holocellulose and bulk wood, but only in the case of P. radiata bulk wood samples tend to provide more negative δ13C values than holocellulose, as reported in the literature. We suggest that, at least for the two hardwood species studied, bulk wood is a suitable material to work with for δ13C assessment, whilst in P. radiata holocellulose could provide a more stable and reliable index, when studying plant ecophysiological responses to changing environmental conditions.