Drought stress and tree size determine stem CO₂ efflux in a tropical forest.

ABSTRACT: CO₂ efflux from stems (CO_{2_stem} ) accounts for a substantial fraction of tropical forest gross primary productivity, but the climate sensitivity of this flux remains poorly understood. We present a study of tropical forest CO_{2_stem} from 215 trees across wet and dry seasons, at the world's longest running tropical forest drought experiment site. We show a 27% increase in wet season CO_{2_stem} in the droughted forest relative to a control forest. This was driven by increasing CO_{2_stem} in trees 10-40 cm diameter. Furthermore, we show that drought increases the proportion of maintenance to growth respiration in trees > 20 cm diameter, including large increases in maintenance respiration in the largest droughted trees, > 40 cm diameter. Howev

SUBMITTER: Rowland L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5969101 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature