Peer-reviewedCC BYScience Advances
Decoupled carbon assimilation and growth responses to aridity in temperate deciduous oaks
34 affiliations
- 1CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), Catalonia, Spain
- 2Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
- 3Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
- 4Tree-Ring Laboratory, Biology and Paleo-Environment Division, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA
- 5TESAF, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture, and Forestry, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- 6Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
- 7Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- 8Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- 9Pachama, Berkeley, CA, USA
- 10Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales-IANIGLA, CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina
- 11Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
- 12NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- 13Biosphere Sciences & Engineering, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA, USA
- 14Department of Earth Science and Environmental Change, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- 15Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- 16Q-ForestLab, Department of Environment, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
- 17Biology and Paleo-Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA
- 18Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- 19Biology Department University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- 20The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL, USA
- 21Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
- 22Hise Scientific, Somers, NY, USA
- 23Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- 24Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
- 25Department of Natural Resources and Society, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
- 26Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, MA, USA
- 27Geography, Environment, & Society, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- 28Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- 29Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA
- 30Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- 31College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA
- 32Department of Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
- 33CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
- 34Department of Forest Management, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
Abstract
The magnitude of the terrestrial carbon sink remains a key uncertainty in future climate projections, in part due to poorly understood links between carbon uptake and its allocation to woody biomass in vegetation. Here, in this study, we show that photosynthesis and aboveground growth occur asynchronously across diel to seasonal scales in eight North American oak species. Across 137 tree ring sites, current-year annual growth was insensitive to climate variability after midsummer despite 26 to 36% of annual gross primary productivity (GPP) occurring during this period. Hourly GPP flux and growth measurements at four sites spanning seven site years further demonstrate that wood formation ceases earlier than photosynthesis and is restricted to periods of low atmospheric aridity and temperature. This photosynthesis-growth decoupling intensifies with interannual variability in vapor pressure deficit ( r = 0.86, P < 0.05), suggesting that by assuming tight coupling between photosynthesis and woody biomass, current earth system models may overestimate long-term carbon sequestration in forests.
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BibTeX
@article{rao2026decoupled,
title = {{Decoupled carbon assimilation and growth responses to aridity in temperate deciduous oaks}},
author = {Mukund Palat Rao and Arturo Pacheco-Solana and Rong Li and Bar Oryan and Johanna Jensen and Milagros Rodríguez‐Catón and Lily Klinek and Zoe Pierrat and Sophie Ruehr and Rose Oelkers and Laura E. Boeschoten and Kevin Lee Griffin and Michael McCormack and Xi Yang and Joseph Verfaillie and Dennis Baldocchi and Jeremy Hise and Alexander J. Turner and Todd M. Scanlon and Laia Andreu‐Hayles and Jan U.H. Eitel and Neil Pederson and Daniel Griffin and David W. Stahle and Justin T. Maxwell and Steven L. Voelker and Steven A. Kannenberg and Josep Peñuelas and Troy S. Magney},
journal = {Science Advances},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.ady7139},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady7139},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Decoupled carbon assimilation and growth responses to aridity in temperate deciduous oaks
AU - Mukund Palat Rao
AU - Arturo Pacheco-Solana
AU - Rong Li
AU - Bar Oryan
AU - Johanna Jensen
AU - Milagros Rodríguez‐Catón
AU - Lily Klinek
AU - Zoe Pierrat
AU - Sophie Ruehr
AU - Rose Oelkers
AU - Laura E. Boeschoten
AU - Kevin Lee Griffin
AU - Michael McCormack
AU - Xi Yang
AU - Joseph Verfaillie
AU - Dennis Baldocchi
AU - Jeremy Hise
AU - Alexander J. Turner
AU - Todd M. Scanlon
AU - Laia Andreu‐Hayles
AU - Jan U.H. Eitel
AU - Neil Pederson
AU - Daniel Griffin
AU - David W. Stahle
AU - Justin T. Maxwell
AU - Steven L. Voelker
AU - Steven A. Kannenberg
AU - Josep Peñuelas
AU - Troy S. Magney
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/12
JO - Science Advances
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.ady7139
UR - https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady7139
AB - The magnitude of the terrestrial carbon sink remains a key uncertainty in future climate projections, in part due to poorly understood links between carbon uptake and its allocation to woody biomass in vegetation. Here, in this study, we show that photosynthesis and aboveground growth occur asynchronously across diel to seasonal scales in eight North American oak species. Across 137 tree ring sites, current-year annual growth was insensitive to climate variability after midsummer despite 26 to 36% of annual gross primary productivity (GPP) occurring during this period. Hourly GPP flux and growth measurements at four sites spanning seven site years further demonstrate that wood formation ceases earlier than photosynthesis and is restricted to periods of low atmospheric aridity and temperature. This photosynthesis-growth decoupling intensifies with interannual variability in vapor pressure deficit ( r = 0.86, P < 0.05), suggesting that by assuming tight coupling between photosynthesis and woody biomass, current earth system models may overestimate long-term carbon sequestration in forests.
SN - 2375-2548
ER -