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| Titel |
iTREE: Long-term variability of tree growth in a changing environment - identifying physiological mechanisms using stable C and O isotopes in tree rings. |
| VerfasserIn |
R. T. W. Siegwolf, N. Buchmann, D. Frank, F. Joos, A. Kahmen, K. Treydte, M. Leuenberger, M. Saurer |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2012
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 14 (2012) |
| Datensatznummer |
250071131
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Trees play are a critical role in the carbon cycle – their photosynthetic assimilation is one of
the largest terrestrial carbon fluxes and their standing biomass represents the largest carbon
pool of the terrestrial biosphere. Understanding how tree physiology and growth respond to
long-term environmental change is pivotal to predict the magnitude and direction of the
terrestrial carbon sink.
iTREE is an interdisciplinary research framework to capitalize on synergies among
leading dendroclimatologists, plant physiologists, isotope specialists, and global carbon
cycle modelers with the objectives of reducing uncertainties related to tree/forest
growth in the context of changing natural environments. Cross-cutting themes in
our project are tree rings, stable isotopes, and mechanistic modelling. We will (i)
establish a European network of tree-ring based isotope time-series to retrodict
interannual to long-term tree physiological changes, (ii) conduct laboratory and field
experiments to adapt a mechanistic isotope model to derive plant physiological
variables from tree-ring isotopes, (iii) implement this model into a dynamic global
vegetation model, and perform subsequent model-data validation exercises to refine
model representation of plant physiological processes and (iv) attribute long-term
variation in tree growth to plant physiological and environmental drivers, and identify
how our refined knowledge revises predictions of the coupled carbon-cycle climate
system.
We will contribute to i) advanced quantifications of long-term variation in tree growth
across Central Europe, ii) novel long-term information on key physiological processes that
underlie variations in tree growth, and iii) improved carbon cycle models that can be
employed to revise predictions of the coupled carbon-cycle climate system. Hence iTREE
will significantly contribute towards a seamless understanding of the responses of
terrestrial ecosystems to long-term environmental change, and ultimately help reduce
uncertainties of the magnitude and direction of the past and future terrestrial carbon sink. |
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