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| Spinach answers of young trees...... |
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Ch. Körner
Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Switzerland
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Trees comprise more than 80% of the globe's biomass, but have one major shortcoming for experimental scientists: they don't fit experimental facilities, once they get mature. It is still of great interest to learn how they get there, in particular how they perform during the earliest part of their life. Yet, there is an obvious scaling problem once forest responses to environmental changes are discussed. Starting from Loehle's (1995) account of the problem, I will pinpoint some particular aspects of the young versus mature tree responsiveness, and how the scientific community might deal with this. People tend to be too pessimistic about the feasability of tall tree research. It will be emphasized that the aim does not need to be (or practically, cannot be) the ultimate long-term response of adult trees. A promising focus however, is the study of the dynamics of transient behaviour instead of certain end points set by funding agencies. Tall tree research will never meet "spinach type" of statistical criteria, but may capitalize on tree life history, engraved in growth rings, permitting to test response transients within individuals due to treatments, an option, not available for herbaceous or weedy species, tree seedlings or saplings. I will close with an outlook on new frontiers of mature forest CO2-enrichment using a "Tarzan" type of CO2-supply, the so-called web-FACE, which permits to obtain data, currently inaccessible with conventional CO2-enrichment technology. This sort of research will always be amid the battlefield between precision and relevance (Schindler 1998).
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Loehle C (1995) Anomalous responses of plants to CO2 enrichment. Oikos 73:181-187
Schindler DW (1998) Replication versus realism: The need for ecosystem-scale experiments. Ecosystems 1:323-334
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