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Global variation in nonstructural carbohydrate stores in response to climate
Meghan Blumstein1, Jessica Gersony2,3, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta4,5
1Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Global Change Biology
|December 30, 2022
Summary
Nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) in woody plants, particularly soluble sugars, increase with cold and dry conditions, enhancing plant tolerance. Maximum NSC storage, however, is linked to carbon assimilation, not environmental stress.
Area of Science:
- Plant physiology
- Ecology
- Climate change biology
Background:
- Woody plants store nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) for various functions, including buffering photosynthetic supply fluctuations and environmental extremes like drought and freezing.
- The precise role of NSCs as energy reserves or osmolytes and their global climatic drivers remain incompletely understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between climate and nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) storage in woody plants globally.
- To determine if maximum NSC stores and soluble sugar content correlate with temperature and aridity, suggesting roles in stress tolerance.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a global database of seasonal NSC storage measurements from woody plants.
- Analyzed NSC patterns against average site climate and specific sampling conditions (temperature, aridity).
Main Results:
- Soluble sugar content in aboveground tissues increased significantly with colder and drier conditions, indicating enhanced tolerance to cold and arid environments.
- Maximum total NSC stores increased with average site temperature and showed no correlation with aridity.
- These findings suggest soluble sugars act as osmolytes, while total NSC storage capacity may be more influenced by carbon assimilation potential than environmental stress.
Conclusions:
- NSC stores, especially soluble sugars, play a critical role as osmolytes, increasing plant tolerance to cold and drought.
- Total NSC storage is likely driven more by a plant's carbon assimilation capacity than by direct environmental stress.
- This research provides a comprehensive global synthesis of NSC variation, improving predictions of plant responses to environmental changes.
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