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Harvard Forest Data Archive

HF225

Nonstructural Carbohydrates in Red Maple at Harvard Forest and Bartlett Forest 2011-2012

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Data

Overview

  • Lead: Andrew Richardson, Mariah Carbone
  • Investigators:
  • Contact: Information Manager
  • Start date: 2011
  • End date: 2012
  • Status: complete
  • Location: Harvard Forest, Bartlett Experimental Forest
  • Latitude: +42.53 to +44.06 degrees
  • Longitude: 72.17 to 71.29 degrees
  • Elevation: 270 to 340 meter
  • Datum: WGS84
  • Taxa: Acer rubrum (red maple)
  • Release date: 2023
  • Language: English
  • EML file: knb-lter-hfr.225.5
  • DOI: digital object identifier
  • EDI: data package
  • DataONE: data package
  • Related links:
  • Study type: short-term measurement
  • Research topic: forest-atmosphere exchange; physiological ecology, population dynamics and species interactions; regional studies
  • LTER core area: primary production
  • Keywords: carbohydrates, carbon, tree physiology
  • Abstract:

    Nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) are the primary products of photosynthesis, composed mostly of sugars and starch. Recent studies show that NSC pools in mature trees can be quite large and on average a decade old. Thus, NSC pools integrate years of carbon assimilation and represent significant ecological memory at the whole plant and ecosystem level. However, we know very little about how older stored NSC versus newly assimilated NSC are used to support growth and metabolism, or how available older NSC are to trees during stress or following disturbance. To better understand these potential lags in NSC allocation, we studied mature red maple (Acer rubrum) trees in two New England temperate forests. We determined stemwood concentrations of stored sugars and starch of five trees at each site. Applying the radiocarbon (14C) “bomb spike” approach, we estimated the age of carbon in stemwood NSC, ring cellulose, and bole respiration. We also collected stump sprouts regrowing from a separate set of recently harvested red maple trees at each site, and determined the radiocarbon age of this tissue. Our data show that younger NSC is preferentially used for growth and day-to-day metabolic demands. More recently stored NSC contributes to annual ring growth and metabolism in the dormant season. Older reserves are available to the tree after disturbance (e.g. harvesting).

  • Methods:

    Field methods and sampling protocol, as well as analytic methods, are described fully in the following publication: Carbone, M.S., C.I. Czimczik, T.F. Keenan, P.F. Murakami, N. Pederson, P.G. Schaberg, and A.D. Richardson, 2013, Age, allocation and availability of nonstructural carbon in mature red maple trees, New Phytologist 200: 1145-1155. 14C analyses were conducted at UC Irvine; NSC concentrations were determined at the USDA Forest Service lab in Burlington VT. The measurement precision (±1 SD) for all F14C is ≤ 0.0022 and for d13C values is ≤0.15‰.

  • Organization: Harvard Forest. 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA 01366, USA. Phone (978) 724-3302. Fax (978) 724-3595.

  • Project: The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. (ROR).

  • Funding: National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210.

  • Use: This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

  • License: Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0)

  • Citation: Richardson A, Carbone M. 2023. Nonstructural Carbohydrates in Red Maple at Harvard Forest and Bartlett Forest 2011-2012. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF225 (v.5). Environmental Data Initiative: https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/fcb27856ff14a195848953732a8fd4d8.

Detailed Metadata

hf225-01: mature trees

  1. sample.id: sample identification
  2. dbh: diameter at breast height (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  3. height: height (unit: meter / missing value: NA)
  4. age: tree stump age in years (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  5. sucrose: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  6. glucose: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  7. fructose: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  8. raffinose: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  9. stachyose: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  10. total.sugar: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  11. starch: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  12. total: nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations extracted from 2 cm stemwood cores in late summer (mg g-1 dry wood) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  13. spring.stem.co2: spring CO2 flux rate (unit: micromolePerMeterSquaredPerSecond / missing value: NA)
  14. summer.stem.co2: summer CO2 flux rate (unit: micromolePerMeterSquaredPerSecond / missing value: NA)
  15. ring.celluose.f14c: the F14C (in Fraction Modern) of cellulose extracted from the innermost (oldest) ring in the 2 cm stemwood core (unit: dimensionless / missing: NA)
  16. ring.celluose.d13c: the d13C (‰) of cellulose extracted from the innermost (oldest) ring in the 2 cm stemwood core (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  17. stem.sugar.f14c: the F14C (in Fraction Modern) of extracted stemwood sugars (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  18. stem.sugar.d13c: the d13C (‰) of extracted stemwood sugars (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  19. spring.stem.co2.f14c: the F14C (in Fraction Modern) of stem CO2 emitted in spring (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  20. spring.stem.co2.d13c: the d13C (‰) of stem CO2 emitted in spring (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  21. summer.stem.co2.f14c: the F14C (in Fraction Modern) of stem CO2 emitted in summer (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  22. summer.stem.co2.d13c: the Fd13C (‰) of stem CO2 emitted in summer (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)

hf225-02: stump sprouts

  1. site: site identification
  2. dbh: tree stump diameter at breast height (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  3. age: tree stump age in years (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  4. sprout.f14c: sprout biomass F14C (in Fraction Modern) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  5. sprout.d13c: sprout biomass d13C (‰) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)