Print PageThere remains much uncertainty in the field of treering δ (oxygen stable isotope ratios of tree-ring cellulose) based environment reconstructions regarding the robustness of established empirical relationships across various tree species. Such uncertainty is considered to be aconsequence of a lack of understanding of how and why treering δ varies among treespecies. The study was designed to conduct a comprehensive examination of several physiological, micro-climatological and biological factors that may account for the treering δ variation in a temperate forest in New Jersey. The gained knowledge of interspecific variation in treering δ will lend us an improved degree of confidence inutilizing treering δ as the tool for past environmentreconstruction.
Results/Conclusions
We found that the variation in treering δ among the five studied co-occuring species can be as much as 4 per mil. Such a difference cannot be explained by interspecific variation in source water δ. Rather, inter-specific variation in processes/factors affecting leaf water enrichment, such as canopy leaf temperature, Peclet path length, and stomatal conductance, play an important role in accounting for interspecific treering δ variation.
