Inter‐annual and inter‐species tree growth explained by phenology of xylogenesis

• Published in: The New phytologist Vol. 235; no. 3; pp. 939 - 952
• Main Authors: Chen, Yizhao, Rademacher, Tim, Fonti, Patrick, Eckes‐Shephard, Annemarie H., LeMoine, James M., Fonti, Marina V., Richardson, Andrew D., Friend, Andrew D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-08-2022; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Acer rubrum; Annual variations; Carbohydrates; cell enlargement; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Coniferous forests; diffuse porous; Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Ecosystem services; Environmental control; Environmental factors; Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap; Growth patterns; Growth rate; Hardwoods; inter-annual variability; Mixed forests; Natural Sciences; Naturgeografi; Naturvetenskap; nonstructural carbon hydrate; Oak; Phenology; Physical Geography; ring porous; Seasonal variation; Seasonal variations; Seasonality; Species; temperate forest; Temperate forests; Width; Wood; wood phenology; Xylem; xylogenesis; xylogenesis; temperate forest; inter-annual variability; ring porous; wood phenology; diffuse porous; nonstructural carbon hydrate; cell enlargement
• ISSN: 0028-646X; 1469-8137
• DOI: 10.1111/nph.18195

Summary
Wood formation determines major long‐term carbon (C) accumulation in trees and therefore provides a crucial ecosystem service in mitigating climate change. Nevertheless, we lack understanding of how species with contrasting wood anatomical types differ with respect to phenology and environmental controls on wood formation.
In this study, we investigated the seasonality and rates of radial growth and their relationships with climatic factors, and the seasonal variations of stem nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) in three species with contrasting wood anatomical types (red oak: ring‐porous; red maple: diffuse‐porous; white pine: coniferous) in a temperate mixed forest during 2017–2019.
We found that the high ring width variability observed in both red oak and red maple was caused more by changes in growth duration than growth rate. Seasonal radial growth patterns did not vary following transient environmental factors for all three species. Both angiosperm species showed higher concentrations and lower inter‐annual fluctuations of NSC than the coniferous species.
Inter‐annual variability of ring width varied by species with contrasting wood anatomical types. Due to the high dependence of annual ring width on growth duration, our study highlights the critical importance of xylem formation phenology for understanding and modelling the dynamics of wood formation.