Dying piece by piece: carbohydrate dynamics in aspen (Populus tremuloides) seedlings under severe carbon stress.

ABSTRACT: Carbon starvation as a mechanism of tree mortality is poorly understood. We exposed seedlings of aspen (Populus tremuloides) to complete darkness at 20 or 28 °C to identify minimum non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations at which trees die and to see if these levels vary between organs or with environmental conditions. We also first grew seedlings under different shade levels to determine if size affects survival time under darkness due to changes in initial NSC concentration and pool size and/or respiration rates. Darkness treatments caused a gradual dieback of tissues. Even after half the stem had died, substantial starch reserves were still present in the roots (1.3-3% dry weight), indicating limitations to carbohydrate remobilization and/or transport during starvation in the a

SUBMITTER: Wiley E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5853906 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature