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cje ›› 2011, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (08): 1822-1829.

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Responses of stem/branch respiration to environmental change: A review.

SHENG Hao1**, ZHOU Ping2   

  1. 1College of Resources & Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China; 2Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China
  • Online:2011-08-08 Published:2011-08-08

Abstract: Stem/branch respiration contributes about 8% of the total ecosystem respiration, being one of the most important components of forest carbon budget. In recent 10 years studies, specific respiration chamber with complex system was applied to measure the stem/branch respiration. However, it’s still difficult to precisely estimate the stem/branch respiration at cell, tissue, individual, and stand scales. It is becoming a major trend to estimate the CO2 flux from the  internal and external stem/branch, using the combination of CO2 microelectrode technology and infrared gas analyzer (IRGA) method. Generally, the stem/branch respiration rate increases with elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature, but it’s still unclear whether the stem/branch respiration acclimates to the elevated CO2 concentration and temperature. The Q10 value of stem/branch respiration, ranged from 1.0 to 4.3, could be affected by measurement method, season, tree age, and stem diameter. In addition, the stem/branch respiration rate decreased with increasing drought stress, and increased abruptly with the following rewetting process. The management practices, including fire, fertilization, irrigation, pruning, and girdling, could also affect the stem/branch respiration rate. Therefore, four research priorities were proposed, i.e., 1) sources and fate of the CO2 release from stem/branch respiration and its measurement standard, 2) biological mechanisms of the responses of stem/branch respiration to environmental change, 3) acclimation of stem/branch respiration to environmental changes, and 4) integrated application of stem sap flow measurement, isotopic tracing, and CO2 microelectrode technology in measuring stem/branch respiration.

Key words: Global warming, Precipitation, Soil moisture, Productivity