Seasonal changes in energy allocation by white oak (Quercusalba)

Abstract

Seasonal patterns of change in lipids, sugars, starch, labile (ethanol soluble) constituents, holocellulose, and lignin were studied in six forest-grown white oak (Quercusalba L.) trees. Contents of metabolically active constituents in leaves, twigs, branches, boles (upper and lower), and roots (support and small lateral) were used to construct whole-tree budgets of energy allocation. [14C]Sucrose was also concurrently supplied to the study trees to follow the fate and efficiency of utilization of food reserves. Results showed that white oak rapidly mobilized and replaced food reserves during the critical period of canopy generation in the spring. Starch was more important as a reserve food than lipids or sugar. Large fluctuations in starch in roots in spring and fall suggested a bimodal belowground growth pattern. Labile constituents showed the most pronounced seasonal changes and dominated the calculated whole-tree energy flux patterns. Rapid decline in labile compounds in early spring and a parallel increase in holocellulose suggested a possible pattern of mobilization and resupply of stored reserves associated with in cell wells. This possibility was supported by a concurrent shift of labile 14C to nonlabile 14C in tissues. Canopy generation was calculated to have cost ≤17.7 kg of glucose (1.6 g glucose/g of canopy) of which 13 kg appeared to have come from within the canopy.