Sugar infusion into trees: A novel method to study tree carbon relations and its regulations.

Many carbon-related physiological questions in plants such as carbon (C) limitation or starvation have not yet been resolved thoroughly due to the lack of suitable experimental methodology. As a first step towards resolving these problems, we conducted infusion experiments with bonsai trees () and young maple trees () in greenhouse, and with adult Scots pine trees () in the field, that were "fed" with C-labelled glucose either through the phloem or the xylem. We then traced the C-signal in plant organic matter and respiration to test whether trees can take up and metabolize exogenous sugars infused.

From the comfort zone to crown dieback: Sequence of physiological stress thresholds in mature European beech trees across progressive drought.

Drought responses of mature trees are still poorly understood making it difficult to predict species distributions under a warmer climate. Using mature European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), a widespread and economically important tree species in Europe, we aimed at developing an empirical stress-level scheme to describe its physiological response to drought.