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Carbon isotope discrimination in leaves of the common paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, as a tool for quantifying past tropical and subtropical rainfall

Tibby, John; Barr, Cameron; McInerney, Francesca A.; Henderson, Andrew C.G.; Leng, Melanie J.; Greenway, Margaret; Marshall, Jonathan C.; McGregor, Glenn B.; Tyler, Jonathan J.; McNeil, Vivienne

Carbon isotope discrimination in leaves of the common paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, as a tool for quantifying past tropical and subtropical rainfall Thumbnail


Authors

John Tibby

Cameron Barr

Francesca A. McInerney

Andrew C.G. Henderson

Melanie J. Leng

Margaret Greenway

Jonathan C. Marshall

Glenn B. McGregor

Jonathan J. Tyler

Vivienne McNeil



Abstract

Quantitative reconstructions of terrestrial climate are highly sought after but rare, particularly in Australia. Carbon isotope discrimination in plant leaves (Δleaf) is an established indicator of past hydroclimate because the fractionation of carbon isotopes during photosynthesis is strongly influenced by water stress. Leaves of the evergreen tree Melaleuca quinquenervia have been recovered from the sediments of some perched lakes on North Stradbroke and Fraser Islands, south-east Queensland, eastern Australia. Here, we examine the potential for using M. quinquenervia ∆leaf as a tracer of past rainfall by analysing carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of modern leaves. We firstly assess Δleaf variation at the leaf and stand scale and find no systematic pattern within leaves or between leaves due to their position on the tree. We then examine the relationships between climate and Δleaf for an 11 year timeseries of leaves collected in a litter tray. M. quinquenervia retains its leaves for 1-4 years; thus cumulative average climate data are used. There is a significant relationship between annual mean ∆leaf and mean annual rainfall of the hydrological year for 1-4 years (i.e. 365-1460 days) prior to leaf fall (r2=0.64, p=0.003, n=11). This relationship is marginally improved by accounting for the effect of pCO2 on discrimination (r2=0.67, p=0.002, n=11). The correlation between rainfall and Δleaf, and the natural distribution of Melaleuca quinquenervia around wetlands of eastern Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia offers significant potential to infer past rainfall on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.

Citation

Tibby, J., Barr, C., McInerney, F. A., Henderson, A. C., Leng, M. J., Greenway, M., …McNeil, V. (in press). Carbon isotope discrimination in leaves of the common paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, as a tool for quantifying past tropical and subtropical rainfall. Global Change Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13277

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 19, 2016
Online Publication Date Apr 19, 2016
Deposit Date Mar 21, 2016
Publicly Available Date Apr 19, 2016
Journal Global Change Biology
Print ISSN 1354-1013
Electronic ISSN 1365-2486
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13277
Keywords carbon isotope ratios, palaeoclimate, CO2, discrimination, climate reconstruction, wetlands, Holocene
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/784651
Publisher URL http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13277/abstract

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