Major trends in leaf wax abundance, δ2H and δ13C values along leaf venation in five species of C3 plants: Physiological and geochemical implications

Abstract

Hydrogen and carbon isotope ratios of terrestrial plant leaf wax are powerful paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental proxies. However, further research on the underlying controls of the chemical and isotopic composition is needed in order to more quantitatively infer past climate and environmental conditions. There are systematic molecular and isotopic trends along leaves of a C4 grass Miscanthus, but whether such patterns also occur in other plant types is unclear. Here we determined intra-leaf variability in leaf wax abundance and isotope ratios for five terrestrial C3 plants. All species showed a general increasing base-to-tip trend in leaf wax abundance, suggesting a physiological need for more leaf wax in outer leaf sections. The hydrogen isotope values showed base-to-tip deuterium enrichment in all plants, but carbon isotope values showed base-to-tip 13C depletion in most species. Such intra-leaf isotopic distributions are similar to those in the C4 grass Miscanthus, suggesting similar underlying controls. While leaf wax hydrogen isotopic ratio values in general followed similar trends to corresponding leaf water, we found a significant reduction in hydrogen isotopic fractionation at the base of leaves (most pronounced for Dactylis glomerata). We attribute this to the utilization of isotopically enriched glucose transported from outer leaf sections for leaf wax synthesis at the base. The transported sugars were enriched in deuterium because of preferential consumption of 2H-depleted resources during metabolism in outer sections, in addition to biosynthesis using 2H-enriched leaf water.