Seminar: David Herrera

The amount and distribution of stored non-structural carbohydrates (NSC: starch and soluble sugars) in the stem wood influence the ability of trees to balance their carbon sources and sinks in order to survive.

We aimed to identify the influence of stem-wood starch distribution and leaf habit on seasonal variations of NSC, growth and respiration, and their potential to explain differences in tree’s growth and survival, in a seasonally dry tropical forest in the southern Amazon. We found that seasonal changes in NSC content were dominated by changes in starch, not soluble sugars, and they were negatively related to growth. NSC mass, growth and respiration had greater seasonal variability in fiber-storing species than parenchyma-storing species.

Our results suggest that the anatomical distribution of starch in the stem wood helps us to explain carbon dynamics in mature trees, and may serve as an integrator of the overall metabolic response of mature trees to changes in the environmental conditions.