Drought alters carbon (C) allocation within trees, thereby impairing tree growth. Recovery of root and leaf functioning and prioritized C supply to sink tissues after drought may compensate for drought-induced reduction of assimilation and growth. It remains unclear if C allocation to sink tissues during and following drought is controlled by altered sink metabolic activities or by the availability of new assimilates. Understanding such mechanisms is required to predict forests’ resilience to a changing climate. We investigated the impact of drought and drought release on C allocation in a 100-y-old Scots pine forest. We applied 13CO2 pulse labeling to naturally dry control and long-term irrigated trees and tracked the fate of the label in above- and belowground C pools and fluxes. Allocation of new assimilates belowground was ca. 53% lower under nonirrigated conditions. A short rainfall event, which led to a temporary increase in the soil water content (SWC) in the topsoil, strongly increased the amounts of C transported belowground in the nonirrigated plots to values comparable to those in the irrigated plots. This switch in allocation patterns was congruent with a tipping point at around 15% SWC in the response of the respiratory activity of soil microbes. These results indicate that the metabolic sink activity in the rhizosphere and its modulation by soil moisture can drive C allocation within adult trees and ecosystems. Even a subtle increase in soil moisture can lead to a rapid recovery of belowground functions that in turn affects the direction of C transport in trees.

Abstract. Studies that quantify plant methane (CH4) emission rely on the accurate measurement of small changes in the mixing ratio of CH4 that coincide with much larger changes in the mixing ratio of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Here, we assessed whether 11 commonly occurring VOCs (e.g. methanol, α- and β-pinene, Δ3-carene) interfered with the quantitation of CH4 by five laser-absorption spectroscopy and Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) based CH4 analysers, and quantified the interference of seven compounds on three instruments. Our results showed minimal interference with laser-based analysers and underlined the importance of identifying and compensating for interferences with FTIR instruments. When VOCs were not included in the spectral library, they exerted a strong bias on FTIR-based instruments (64–1800 ppbv apparent CH4 ppmv−1 VOC). Minor (0.7–126 ppbv ppmv−1) interference with FTIR-based measurements were also detected when the spectrum of the interfering VOC was included in the library. In contrast, we detected only minor (<20 ppbv ppmv−1) and transient (< 1 min) VOC interferences on laser-absorption spectroscopy-based analysers. Overall, our results demonstrate that VOC interferences have only minor effects on CH4 flux measurements in soil chambers, but may severely impact stem and shoot flux measurements. Laser-absorption-based instruments are better suited for quantifying CH4 fluxes from plant leaves and stems than FTIR-based instruments; however, significant interferences in shoot chamber measurements could not be excluded for any of the tested instruments. Our results furthermore showed that FTIR can precisely quantify VOC mixing ratios and could therefore provide a method complementary to proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS).

Coniferous tree stems contain large amounts of oleoresin under positive pressure in the resin ducts. Studies in NorthAmerican pines indicated that the stem oleoresin exudation pressure (OEP) correlates negatively with transpiration rate and soil water content. However, it is not known how the OEP changes affect the emissions of volatile vapours from the trees. We measured the OEP, xylem diameter changes indicating changes in xylem water potential and monoterpene emissions under field conditions in mature Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees in southern Finland. Contrary to earlier reports, the diurnal OEP changes were positively correlated with temperature and transpiration rate. OEP was lowest at the top part of the stem, where water potentials were also more negative, and often closely linked to ambient temperature and stem monoterpene emissions. However, occasionally OEP was affected by sudden changes in vapour pressure deficit (VPD), indicating the importance of xylem water potential on OEP as well. We conclude that the oleoresin storage pools in tree stems are in a dynamic relationship with ambient temperature and xylem water potential, and that the canopy monoterpene emission rates may therefore be also regulated by whole tree processes and not only by the conditions prevailing in the upper canopy.

Most plant-based emissions of volatile organic compounds are considered mainly temperature dependent. However, certain oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) have high water solubility; thus, also stomatal conductance could regulate their emissions from shoots. Due to their water solubility and sources in stem and roots, it has also been suggested that their emissions could be affected by transport in the xylem sap. Yet further understanding on the role of transport has been lacking until present. We used shoot-scale long-term dynamic flux data from Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) to analyse the effects of transpiration and transport in xylem sap flow on emissions of 3 water-soluble OVOCs: methanol, acetone, and acetaldehyde. We found a direct effect of transpiration on the shoot emissions of the 3 OVOCs. The emissions were best explained by a regression model that combined linear transpiration and exponential temperature effects. In addition, a structural equation model indicated that stomatal conductance affects emissions mainly indirectly, by regulating transpiration. A part of the temperature's effect is also indirect. The tight coupling of shoot emissions to transpiration clearly evidences that these OVOCs are transported in the xylem sap from their sources in roots and stem to leaves and to ambient air.

Tree stems are an overlooked source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Their contribution to ecosystem processes and total VOC fluxes is not well studied, and assessing it requires better understanding of stem emission dynamics and their driving processes. To gain more mechanistic insight into stem emission patterns, we measured monoterpene, methanol and acetaldehyde emissions from the stems of mature Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris L.) in a boreal forest over three summers. We analysed the effects of temperature, soil water content, tree water status, transpiration and growth on the VOC emissions and used generalized linear models to test their relative importance in explaining the emissions. We show that Scots pine stems are considerable sources of monoterpenes, methanol and acetaldehyde, and their emissions are strongly regulated by temperature. However, even small changes in water availability affected the emission potentials: increased soil water content increased the monoterpene emissions within a day, whereas acetaldehyde and methanol emissions responded within 2–4 days. This lag corresponded to their transport time in the xylem sap from the roots to the stem. Moreover, the emissions of monoterpenes, methanol and acetaldehyde were influenced by the cambial growth rate of the stem with 6–10‐day lags.