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Plant Biol (Stuttg) 2002; 4(2): 181-189
DOI: 10.1055/s-2002-25733
Review Article
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Stable Isotopes and Carbon Cycle Processes in Forests and Grasslands

J. R. Ehleringer 1 , D. R. Bowling 1 , L. B. Flanagan 2 , J. Fessenden 1 , B. Helliker 1 , L. A. Martinelli 3 , J. P. Ometto 1, 3
  • 1 Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA
  • 2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, Alberta, T1K 3M4, Canada
  • 3 Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Av. Centenário 303, Cep 13416-000 Piracicaba SP, Brazil
Further Information

Publication History

May 17, 2001

January 22, 2002

Publication Date:
26 April 2002 (online)

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Abstract

Scaling and partitioning are frequently two difficult challenges facing ecology today. With regard to ecosystem carbon balance studies, ecologists and atmospheric scientists are often interested in asking how fluxes of carbon dioxide scale across the landscape, region and continent. Yet at the same time, physiological ecologists and ecosystem ecologists are interested in dissecting the net ecosystem CO2 exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere to achieve a better understanding of the balance between photosynthesis and respiration within a forest. In both of these multiple-scale ecological questions, stable isotope analyses of carbon dioxide can play a central role in influencing our understanding of the extent to which terrestrial ecosystems are carbon sinks. In this synthesis, we review the theory and present field evidence to address isotopic scaling of CO2 fluxes. We first show that the 13C isotopic signal which ecosystems impart to the atmosphere does not remain constant over time at either temporal or spatial scales. The relative balances of different biological activities and plant responses to stress result in dynamic changes in the 13C isotopic exchange between the biosphere and atmosphere, with both seasonal and stand-age factors playing major roles influencing the 13C biosphere-atmosphere exchange. We then examine how stable isotopes are used to partition net ecosystem exchange fluxes in order to calculate shifts in the balance of photosynthesis and respiration. Lastly, we explore how fundamental differences in the 18O isotopic gas exchange of forest and grassland ecosystems can be used to further partition terrestrial fluxes.

Key words

Carbon isotope - oxygen isotope - stable isotope - carbon cycle

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J. R. Ehleringer

Department of Biology
University of Utah

257 South 1400 East
Salt Lake City
Utah 84112-0840
USA

Email: ehleringer@biology.utah.edu

Section Editor: C. B. Osmond

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