Abstract
Respiration consumes a large portion of annual gross primary productivity in forest ecosystems and is dominated by belowground metabolism. Here, we present evidence of a previously unaccounted for internal CO
2 flux of large magnitude from tree roots through stems. If this pattern is shown to persist over time and in other forests, it suggests that belowground respiration has been grossly underestimated.
Keywords
carbon allocation,
carbon cycle,
CO2 efflux,
dissolved inorganic carbon,
forests,
respiration,
roots,
xylem transport
Citation
Aubrey, Doug P.; Teskey, Robert O. 2009. Root-derived CO
2 efflux via xylem stream rivals soil CO
2 efflux. New Phytologist: 1-6