Intra-specific association between carbon isotope composition and productivity in woody plants: A meta-analysis.

Abstract The study of intra-specific variations in growth and plant physiological response to drought is crucial to understand the potential for plant adaptation to global change. Carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C) in plant tissues offers an integrated measure of intrinsic water-use efficiency ( WUE i ). The intra-specific association between δ 13 C and productivity has been extensively studied in herbaceous crops, but species-specific information on woody plants is still limited and has so far provided contradictory results. In this work we explored the general patterns of the relationship between δ 13 C and growth traits (height, diameter and biomass) using a meta-analysis. We compiled information from 49 articles, including 176 studies performed on 34 species from 16 genera. We found a positive global intra-specific correlation between δ 13 C and growth ( Gr  = 0.28, P 13 C and growth is better characterized at juvenile stages, under near-optimal and controlled conditions, and by analyzing δ 13 C in leaves rather than in wood.