Carbon isotopes in terrestrial ecosystem pools and CO2 fluxes

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02342.x

If you are seeing this message, you may be experiencing temporary network problems. Please wait a few minutes and refresh the page. If the problem persists, you may wish to report it to your local Network Manager.

It is also possible that your web browser is not configured or not able to display style sheets. In this case, although the visual presentation will be degraded, the site should continue to be functional. We recommend using the latest version of Microsoft or Mozilla web browser to help minimise these problems.

Systems Maintenance, Monday, 15th February 2010

Wiley InterScience

New Phytologist

Volume 178 Issue 1, Pages 24 - 40

Published Online: 7 Jan 2008

Published on behalf of the New Phytologist Trust

Go to New Phytologist Trust

< Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >

Save Article to My Profile Download Citation Request Permissions

Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 430K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking

Tansley review

Carbon isotopes in terrestrial ecosystem pools and CO₂ fluxes

David R. Bowling ¹*, Diane E. Pataki ^2,3* and James T. Randerson ²*

¹ Department of Biology, 257 South, 1400 East, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0820, USA; ² Department of Earth System Science and ³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA

Author for correspondence: David R. Bowling Tel:+1 801 581 2130 Fax:+1 801 581 4668 Email: bowling@biology.utah.edu

*The authors contributed equally to this paper.

KEYWORDS

carbon dioxide (CO₂) • organic • plant • photosynthesis • respiration • soil

New Phytologist (2008) 178: 24–40
© The Authors (2008). Journal compilation ©New Phytologist (2008)
doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02342.x

ABSTRACT

	Summary	1
I.	Introduction	2
II.	Isotopic composition of plant metabolites and autotrophic respiration	3
III.	Isotopic composition of plant and ecosystem carbon pools	8
IV.	Isotopic composition of assimilation and respiration fluxes	9
V.	Ecosystem to global scale issues – isotopic composition of gross primary production, net primary production, and net ecosystem production	11
VI.	Conclusions and suggestions for further research	12
	Acknowledgements	13
	References	13

Summary

Stable carbon isotopes are used extensively to examine physiological, ecological, and biogeochemical processes related to ecosystem, regional, and global carbon cycles and provide information at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Much is known about the processes that regulate the carbon isotopic composition (δ¹³C) of leaf, plant, and ecosystem carbon pools and of photosynthetic and respiratory carbon dioxide (CO₂) fluxes. In this review, systematic patterns and mechanisms underlying variation in δ¹³C of plant and ecosystem carbon pools and fluxes are described. We examine the hypothesis that the δ¹³C of leaf biomass can be used as a reference point for other carbon pools and fluxes, which differ from the leaf in δ¹³C in a systematic fashion. Plant organs are typically enriched in ¹³C relative to leaves, and most ecosystem pools and respiratory fluxes are enriched relative to sun leaves of dominant plants, with the notable exception of root respiration. Analysis of the chemical and isotopic composition of leaves and leaf respiration suggests that growth respiration has the potential to contribute substantially to the observed offset between the δ¹³C values of ecosystem respiration and the bulk leaf. We discuss the implications of systematic variations in δ¹³C of ecosystem pools and CO₂ fluxes for studies of carbon cycling within ecosystems, as well as for studies that use the δ¹³C of atmospheric CO₂ to diagnose changes in the terrestrial biosphere over annual to millennial time scales.