The role of non-structural carbohydrate reserves in trees under climatic stress

The storage of non-structural carbon (C) reserves is an indispensable process for all plants. Diverting parts of their photoassimilates into storage pools (e.g. starch and storage lipids) ensures plants to survive periods when the requirement for C (i.e. the sum of all C-sink activities) exceeds their photosynthetic capacity (C-source activity). Over the last decade, research delivered clear evidence that under the current atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, tree growth is generally limited by the availability of resources other than C (e.g. soil nutrients) under most conditions. Whether climatic stresses, like cold temperature or drought, can induce C-limitation in trees is currently vividly debated. We will thus address the following questions: 1) do low temperatures at alpine treelines or drought lead to situations where photosynthesis is limiting growth, and 2) what is the role of non-structural C reserves under such conditions? Trees at the alpine treeline as well as under hydraulic constraints accumulate, rather than use up their non-structural carbohydrate reserves with increasing stress. We propose that this observed increase of C stores results from a stress related decline in growth (C-sink activity) relative to C-supply. Hence, the higher C reserve concentrations found in trees under cold and dry conditions are very likely a direct physiological response to the environmental stress (diversion to storage), reflecting relatively higher availability of photoassimilates compared to sink demand. Previous experiments with trees and crops showed that in cold and dry environments, meristematic growth is generally limited more severely and at an earlier stage than photosynthesis. While cell division and differentiation are close to zero at about 5 °C even in cold adapted species, rates of photosynthesis are still reaching up to 80 % of maximum rates. Similarly, structural growth generally ceases at much less negative water potentials than does photosynthesis, which has been unambiguously shown for crops, but will most likely apply for trees as well. The talk will provide an overview of the existing experimental evidence that underpins this rational. In conclusion, these studies, together with the abundant non-structural carbohydrate stores found in trees along gradients of increasing stress, indicate that a further increase of C availability under future higher atmospheric CO₂ concentrations is unlikely to mitigate stress related limitations of tree growth under low temperature or drought.