On the fate of old stored carbon after large-infrequent disturbances in plants

Abstract

Plants have the capacity to store and reallocate stored non-structural C, but little is known about the age and ecological roles of these pools. It was thought that plants allocate recently assimilated C to produce new fine roots. However, there is recent evidence that plants can allocate old stored C for the production of fine roots following a large-infrequent disturbance (LID) providing a new dimension of the fate and the implied role of stored C in plants. Here, I explore other possible adaptations of plants to allocate stored C reserves, and provide a series of open questions on the fate of old stored C in plants. Specifically, I propose that another metabolic function of old stored C may be for supporting mycorrhizal fungi colonization after a large-infrequent disturbance, because the production of hyphae may be more economical in terms of C to the plant under stressful conditions. Finally, in order to better understand plant resilience to LIDs it is critical to understand the mechanisms that regulate the fate of old stored C in plants.