Keywords:Carbon balance / evapotranspiration / climate / biomass increment / interannual variability / net primary productivity / drought / Fagus sylvatica Abstract • Water and carbon fluxes, as measured by eddy covariance, climate, soil water content, leaf area index, tree biomass, biomass increment (BI), litter fall and mortality were monitored for 10 successive years in a young beech stand in Hesse forest (north-eastern France) under contrasting climatic and management conditions.• Large year-to-year variability of net carbon fluxes (NEE) and to a lesser extent, of tree growth was observed. The variability in NEE (coefficient of variation, CV = 44%) was related to both gross primary production (GPP) and to variations in total ecosystem respiration (TER), each term showing similar and lower interannual variability (CV = 14%) than NEE. Variation in the annual GPP was related to: (i) the water deficit duration and intensity cumulated over the growing season, and (ii) the growing season length, i.e. the period of carbon uptake by the stand. Two thinnings occurring during the observation period did not provoke a reduction in either GPP, water fluxes, or in tree growth. Interannual variation of TER could not be explained by any annual climatic variables, or LAI, and only water deficit duration showed a poor correlation. Annual biomass increment was well correlated to water shortage duration and was significantly influenced by drought in the previous year.• The relationship between annual NEE and biomass increment (BI) was poor: in some years, the annual carbon uptake was much higher and in others much lower than tree growth. However this relationship was much stronger and linear (r 2 = 0.93) on a weekly to monthly time-scale from budburst to the date of radial growth cessation, indicating a strong link between net carbon uptake and tree growth, while carbon losses by respiration occurring after this date upset this relationship.• Despite the lack of correlation between annual data, the NEE and BI cumulated over the 10 years of observations were very close.• On the annual time-scale, net primary productivity calculated from eddy fluxes and from biological measurements showed a good correlation.
Mots-clés :bilan de carbone / évapotranspiration / climat / accroissement en biomasse / variabilité interannuelle / productivité primaire nette / contrainte hydrique / Fagus sylvatica Résumé -Dix années de mesures de flux et de croissance dans une jeune hêtraie du nord-est de la France, en forêt de Hesse.• Les flux d'eau et de dioxyde de carbone, mesurés par la méthode des corrélations turbulentes, le climat, le contenu en eau du sol, l'indice foliaire, la biomasse et l'accroissement en biomasse (BI) des arbres, les chutes de litière et la mortalité ont été suivis en continu pendant 10 années successives dans une jeune hêtraie de la forêt de Hesse (nord-est de la France) en conditions de climat et de gestion contrastées.• Une forte variabilité interannuelle des flux nets de carbone (NEE) et dans une moindre mesure de la crois...