The Earth’s carbon and hydrologic cycles are intimately coupled by gas exchange through plant stomata. However, uncertainties in the magnitude and consequences of the physiological responses of plants to elevated CO2 in natural environments hinders modelling of terrestrial water cycling and carbon storage. Here we use annually resolved long-term 13C tree-ring measurements across a European forest network to reconstruct the physiologically driven response of intercellular CO2 (Ci) caused by atmospheric CO2 (Ca) trends. When removing meteorological signals from the 13C measurements, we find that trees across Europe regulated gas exchange so that for one ppmv atmospheric CO2 increase, Ci increased by 0.76 ppmv, most consistent with moderate control towards a constant Ci=Ca ratio. This response corresponds to twentieth-century intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) increases of 14 ±10 and 22 ± 6% at broadleaf and coniferous sites, respectively. An ensemble of process-based global vegetation models shows similar CO2 effects on iWUE trends. Yet, when operating these models with climate drivers reintroduced, despite decreased stomatal opening, 5%increases in European forest transpiration are calculated over the twentieth century.This counterintuitive result arises from lengthened growing seasons, enhanced evaporative demand in a warming climate, and increased leaf area, which together oppose effects of CO2-induced stomatal closure. Our study questions changes to the hydrological cycle, such as reductions in transpiration and air humidity, hypothesized to result from plant responses to anthropogenic emissions

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The increasing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentration in the atmosphere in combination with climatic changes throughout the last century are likely to have had a profound effect on the physiology of trees: altering the carbon and water fluxes passing through the stomatal pores.However, the magnitude and spatial patterns of such changes in natural forests remain highly uncertain. Here, stable carbon isotope ratios from a network of 35 tree-ring sites located Central Europe, a region where summer soil-water availability decreased over the last century.We were able to demonstrate that the combined effects of increasing CO 2 and climate change leading to soil drying have resulted in an accelerated increase of iWUE. These findings will help to reduce uncertainties in the land surface schemes of global climate models, where vegetation-climate feedbacks are currently still poorly constrained by observational data. 4

Interlaboratory comparisons involving nine European stable isotope laboratories have shown that the routine methods of cellulose preparation resulted in data that generally agreed within the precision of the isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) method used: +/-0.2 per thousand for carbon and +/-0.3 per thousand for oxygen. For carbon, the results suggest that holocellulose is enriched up to 0.39 per thousand in 13C relative to the purified alpha-cellulose. The comparisons of IRMS measurements of carbon on cellulose, sugars, and starches showed low deviations from -0.23 to +0.23 per thousand between laboratories. For oxygen, IRMS measurements varied between means from -0.39 to 0.58 per thousand, -0.89 to 0.42 per thousand, and -1.30 to 1.16 per thousand for celluloses, sugars, and starches, respectively. This can be explained by different effects arising from the use of low- or high-temperature pyrolysis and by the variation between laboratories in the procedures used for drying and storage of samples. The results of analyses of nonexchangeable hydrogen are very similar in means with standard deviations between individual methods from +/-2.7 to +/-4.9 per thousand. The use of a one-point calibration (IAEA-CH7) gave significant positive offsets in delta2H values up to 6 per thousand. Detailed analysis of the results allows us to make the following recommendations in order to increase quality and compatibility of the common data bank: (1) removal of a pretreatment with organic solvents, (2) a purification step with 17% sodium hydroxide solution during cellulose preparation procedure, (3) measurements of oxygen isotopes under an argon hood, (4) use of calibration standard materials, which are of similar nature to that of the measured samples, and (5) using a two-point calibration method for reliable result calculation.

A 1200-year multiproxy record of tree growth and summer temperature at the northern pine forest limit Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com can be found at: The Holocene Additional services and information for AbstractCombining nine tree growth proxies from four sites, from the west coast of Norway to the Kola Peninsula of NW Russia, provides a well replicated (> 100 annual measurements per year) mean index of tree growth over the last 1200 years that represents the growth of much of the northern pine timberline forests of northern Fennoscandia. The simple mean of the nine series, z-scored over their common period, correlates strongly with mean June to August temperature averaged over this region (r = 0.81), allowing reconstructions of summer temperature based on regression and variance scaling. The reconstructions correlate significantly with gridded summer temperatures across the whole of Fennoscandia, extending north across Svalbard and south into Denmark. Uncertainty in the reconstructions is estimated by combining the uncertainty in mean tree growth with the uncertainty in the regression models. Over the last seven centuries the uncertainty is < 4.5% higher than in the 20th century, and reaches a maximum of 12% above recent levels during the 10th century. The results suggest that the 20th century was the warmest of the last 1200 years, but that it was not significantly different from the 11th century. The coldest century was the 17th. The impact of volcanic eruptions is clear, and a delayed recovery from pairs or multiple eruptions suggests the presence of some positive feedback mechanism. There is no clear and consistent link between northern Fennoscandian summer temperatures and solar forcing.

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An improved method for the determination of deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratios of non-exchangeable hydrogen in cellulose is presented. The method is based on the equilibration reaction of the hydroxyl hydrogen of cellulose and water vapour of known isotopic composition. The equilibrated cellulose is pyrolysed and the total D/H ratio determined by subsequent online isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). With a mass balance system the D/H ratio of non-exchangeable hydrogen is recalculated after an empirical calibration has been performed, yielding a mean exchangeability of 0.239 and an equilibrium fractionation factor of 1.082 between the hydroxyl hydrogen of cellulose and water hydrogen at 110 degrees C. Equilibration takes 10 min per sample. Results obtained by this online equilibration method agree very well with values obtained by the nitration technique (R2 = 0.941). The uncertainty of the equilibration method is +/-4 per thousand resulting from a single standard deviation of +/-2.8 per thousand for the equilibration determined by standard cellulose and 2.8 per thousand from the variable exchangeability of the hydroxyl hydrogen in cellulose due to crystalline areas. The latter uncertainty may be lowered by minimising the crystallinity of the cellulose. Advantages of this new technique are (i) the considerably reduced sample amount required (as low as 0.2 mg, ideally 0.5 mg compared with 20 mg for the conventional nitration technique); (ii) an approximately 100-fold reduced process time; and (iii) no need for the hazardous chemicals used in the nitration technique.

Aim The aim was to decipher Europe‐wide spatio‐temporal patterns of forest growth dynamics and their associations with carbon isotope fractionation processes inferred from tree rings as modulated by climate warming. Location Europe and North Africa (30‒70° N, 10° W‒35° E). Time period 1901‒2003. Major taxa studied Temperate and Euro‐Siberian trees. Methods We characterize changes in the relationship between tree growth and carbon isotope fractionation over the 20th century using a European network consisting of 20 site chronologies. Using indexed tree‐ring widths (TRWi), we assess shifts in the temporal coherence of radial growth across sites (synchrony) for five forest ecosystems (Atlantic, boreal, cold continental, Mediterranean and temperate). We also examine whether TRWi shows variable coupling with leaf‐level gas exchange, inferred from indexed carbon isotope discrimination of tree‐ring cellulose (Δ13Ci). Results We find spatial autocorrelation for TRWi and Δ13Ci extending over a maximum of 1,000 km among forest stands. However, growth synchrony is not uniform across Europe, but increases along a latitudinal gradient concurrent with decreasing temperature and evapotranspiration. Latitudinal relationships between TRWi and Δ13Ci (changing from negative to positive southwards) point to drought impairing carbon uptake via stomatal regulation for water saving occurring at forests below 60° N in continental Europe. An increase in forest growth synchrony over the 20th century together with increasingly positive relationships between TRWi and Δ13Ci indicate intensifying impacts of drought on tree performance. These effects are noticeable in drought‐prone biomes (Mediterranean, temperate and cold continental). Main conclusions At the turn of this century, convergence in growth synchrony across European forest ecosystems is coupled with coordinated warming‐induced effects of drought on leaf physiology and tree growth spreading northwards. Such a tendency towards exacerbated moisture‐sensitive growth and physiology could override positive effects of enhanced leaf intercellular CO2 concentrations, possibly resulting in Europe‐wide declines of forest carbon gain in the coming decades.