Carbohydrate content governs growth‐storage allocation during recovery from carbon depletion
Franklin Alongi, Danielle E. M. Ulrich, Meghan Blumstein, Nadine K. RuehrSummary
How plants prioritize carbon (C) allocation between growth and storage remains an outstanding question, limiting predictions of forest C cycling and ecosystem resilience following periods of C limitation.
To address this gap, we experimentally depleted carbohydrate reserves via low‐CO
2
conditions and quantified C allocation to reserves and growth during recovery at ambient CO
2
in
Fagus sylvatica
juveniles.
Trees with lower carbohydrate reserves following C depletion prioritized C allocation to storage, whereas trees replete with carbohydrates favored growth, demonstrating that internal carbohydrate status governs allocation priorities during recovery from periods of C limitation. Our findings show that storage‐growth allocation during recovery from C limitation is driven by internal carbohydrate status, identifying plant carbohydrate concentration as a key variable for parameterizing the substrate‐dependent sink strength that current process‐based vegetation models largely omit.