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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Simulating Temperature in a Soil Incubation Experiment
Published on: October 28, 2022
Thermal acclimation of stem respiration implies a weaker carbon-climate feedback
Han Zhang1, Han Wang1, Ian J Wright2,3,4
1Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
None:
The efflux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from woody stems, a proxy for stem respiration, is a critical carbon flux from ecosystems to the atmosphere, which increases with temperature on short timescales. However, plants acclimate their respiratory response to temperature on longer timescales, potentially weakening the carbon-climate feedback. The magnitude of this acclimation is uncertain despite its importance for predicting future climate change. We develop an optimality-based theory dynamically linking stem respiration with leaf water supply to predict its thermal acclimation. We show that the theory accurately reproduces observations of spatial and seasonal change. We estimate the global value for current annual stem CO2 efflux as 27.4 ± 5.9 PgC. By 2100, incorporating thermal acclimation reduces projected stem respiration without considering acclimation by 24 to 46%, thus reducing land ecosystem carbon emissions.
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