Meteorological Influences on Short-Term Carbon-Water Relationships in Two Forests in Subtropical China

Abstract

Carbon and water fluxes in ecosystems are tightly coupled by gas diffusion through stomata. However, carbon–water (C–W) relationships vary largely across time scales, vegetation types, and regions. Subtropical forests in China play an important role in the global carbon and water cycles, yet studies of C–W relationships in this region remain limited. Here, we investigated summer-time C–W relationships in this region at two subtropical sites: the evergreen broadleaved forest at Dinghushan (23.17° N, 112.53° E, 300 m) and the evergreen coniferous forest at Qianyanzhou (26.74° N, 115.06° W, 106 m), using the flux tower data from the FLUXNET2015. The C–W relationship was examined using two measures. The first was daily water use efficiency (WUE), which is the ratio of daily gross primary productivity (GPP) to evapotranspiration (ET). The second was the correlation coefficient (r) of hourly GPP and ET. Our analysis showed that the daily WUE in the two forests ranged over 4–14 mg CO2 per g H2O, higher in the coniferous forest than in the broadleaved forest. The mean values of r for hourly C–W coupling were similar at the two forests, being 0.5–0.6, which suggests asynchronous diurnal variations in GPP and ET. Both daily WUE and r were modulated by meteorological conditions. In general, high radiation, air temperature, and humidity can reduce WUE at both sites. For the broadleaved forest, the most influential factor on WUE was VPD, followed by radiation, while in the coniferous forest, VPD, air temperature, and radiation were almost equally important. For hourly C–W coupling, VPD plays a significant role. The drier the air is, the weaker the coupling in the two forests. The daily WUE and hourly C–W coupling reflect the C–W relationship from different perspectives. Both showed the strongest response to VPD but with different sensitivity.