No abstract

Summary Future increases in air temperature resulting from human activities may increase the water vapour pressure deficit (VPD) of the atmosphere. Understanding the responses of trees to spatial variation in VPD can strengthen our ability to predict how trees will respond to temporal changes in this important variable. Using published values, we tested the theoretical prediction that conifers decrease their investment in photosynthetic tissue (leaves) relative to water‐conducting tissue in the stem (sapwood) as VPD increases. The ratio of leaf/sapwood area (AL/AS) decreased significantly with increasing VPD in Pinus species but not in Abies, Pseudotsuga, Tsuga and Picea, and the average AL/AS was significantly lower for pines than other conifers (pines: 0.17 m2 cm−2; nonpines: 0.44 m2 cm−2). Thus, pines adjusted to increasing aridity by altering above‐ground morphology while nonpine conifers did not. The average water potential causing a 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity was −3.28 MPa for pines and −4.52 MPa for nonpine conifers, suggesting that pines are more vulnerable to xylem embolism than other conifers. For Pinus ponderosa the decrease in AL/AS with high VPD increases the capacity to provide water to foliage without escalating the risk of xylem embolism. Low AL/AS and plasticity in this variable may enhance drought tolerance in pines. However, lower AL/AS with increasing VPD and an associated shift in biomass allocation from foliage to stems suggests that pines may expend more photosynthate constructing and supporting structural mass and carry less leaf area as the climate warms.

Summary Old forests are important carbon pools, but are thought to be insignificant as current atmospheric carbon sinks. This perception is based on the assumption that changes in productivity with age in complex, multiaged, multispecies natural forests can be modelled simply as scaled‐up versions of individual trees or even‐aged stands. This assumption was tested by measuring the net primary productivity (NPP) of natural subalpine forests in the Northern Rocky Mountains, where NPP is from 50% to 100% higher than predicted by a model of an even‐age forest composed of a single species. If process‐based terrestrial carbon models underestimate NPP by 50% in just one quarter of the temperate coniferous forests throughout the world, then global NPP is being underestimated by 145 Tg of carbon annually. This is equivalent to 4.3–7.6% of the missing atmospheric carbon sink. These results emphasize the need to account for multiple‐aged, species‐diverse, mature forests in models of terrestrial carbon dynamics to approximate the global carbon budget.