δ13C and Water Use Efficiency in the Glucose of Annual Pine Tree Rings as Ecological Indicators of the Forests in the Most Industrialized Part of Poland

Water Air Soil Pollut (2016) 227: 68 DOI 10.1007/s11270-016-2750-1 δ13C and Water Use Efficiency in the Glucose of Annual Pine Tree Rings as Ecological Indicators of the Forests in the Most Industrialized Part of Poland Barbara M. Sensuła Received: 26 October 2015 / Accepted: 5 January 2016 / Published online: 1 February 2016 # The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract In this study, stable carbon isotope ratios in the glucose samples were extracted from annual pine tree rings as bio-indicators of contemporary environmental changes in heavily urbanized areas. The sampling sites were located in close proximity to point source pollution emitters, such as a heat and power plant BŁaziska^ and steelworks BHuta Katowice^ in Silesia (Poland). The analysed samples covered the time span from 1975 to 2012 AD, the time period of the development of industrialization and the modernization in the industrial sector in Poland, similarly as in Eastern Europe. This modernization was connected with EU legislation and the implementation of restrictive governmental regulations on emissions. The carbon isotope discrimination has been proposed as a method for evaluating water use efficiency. The measurements of carbon isotopes were carried out using the continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer coupled to the elemental analyser. The δ13C values were calibrated relative to the C-3 and C-5 international standards. Diffuse air pollution caused the variation in δ13C and iWUE (the ratio between CO2 assimilation and stomatal conductance) Highlights The relation between δ13C and iWUE is not linear. Variation of δ13C and iWUE values depends on the type of emitter and some local effects. Low stack emissions can significantly influence δ13C and iWUE values. B. M. Sensuła (*) Institute of Physics - Center for Science and Education, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 22B, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland e-mail: dependency on the type of emitter and some local effects of other human activities. In this study, the first results of water use efficiency in glucose are presented. In the period of time from 1975 to 2012, the water use efficiency values increased from 98 to 122 μmol/mol. Keywords Carbon stable isotopes . iWUE . Atmospheric pollution . Glucose 1 Introduction Most of the modernizations in different plants and the industrial sector in Eastern Europe are connected with EU legislation and the implementation of restrictive governmental regulations on emissions. According to the report of the European Environment (2013), exposure to air pollution has also been linked to low birth weights in babies, and also to asthma, heart disease and kidney damage. The fine toxic particles that are inhaled by humans and deposited in the lungs get to enter the bloodstream. In Poland, similarly as in most countries all over the world, the systematic long-term monitoring of air pollutants is generally restricted to rural point source regions in urban areas. Even for those areas, air pollution emissions were not continually monitored, and data is only available for the last decades. The pollution impacts human, plants and animal life and different ecosystem processes. Tree ring series that present long-term data can be used to analyse the ecosystem changes caused by human activities (e.g. Ferrio et al., 2003; McCarroll and Loader, 2004; Pazdur et al., 2007; 68 Page 2 of 13 Keeling et al., 2010; Rinne et al., 2010; Gagen et al., 2011; Battipaglia et al., 2013; Saurer et al., 2014; Sensuła et al. 2015a, 2015b; Sensuła 2015). Scots pine (Pinus silvestris L.) is considered to be sensitive to the anthropogenic effect (Schweingruber, Schweingruber. F.H 1996; De Vries et al., 2000; Sensuła et al., 2011b; Sensuła and Pazdur, 2013a, 2013b; Pazdur et al. 2013, Saurer et al. 2014). Few studies have been successful at inferring long-term trends of point source air pollution involving different types of industrial production such as power plants, chemical plants, copper and metal smelters (Szychowska-Krąpiec and Wiśniowski, 1996; Wilczynski, 2006; Wagner and Wagner, 2006; Malik et al., 2012; Sensuła et al. 2015a, 2015b). But there is still a lack of a stable isotope fractionation analysis of trees growing in the contemporary forest in one of the most industrialized part of Europe—the southern part of Poland, where the reclamation of degraded landscapes is taking place in the post-industrial period of time. The combination of several independent indicators constitutes a powerful tool as an example in environmental research. The analysis of diffuse air pollution signal recorded in the stable isotope composition of trees can show responses to environmental changes (e.g. (Schweingruber. F.H 1996; De Vries et al., 2000; Sensuła et al. 2011a; Sensuła and Pazdur, 2013a, 2013b; Pazdur et al. 2013). Several studies have used different stable isotopic compositions of the leaves as bio-indicators (e.g. Ehrelinger and Vogel, 1993; Gebauer et al. 1994; Emmett et al., 1998; Sensuła 2015) in the analysis of diffuse atmospheric pollution. Human alterations of the carbon cycles have influenced the dynamics, biodiversity and functioning of many ecosystems and ecological processes (Martin et al., 1988; Vitousek et al., 1997; Marland 2008). An increase in air pollution, land use, to fossil fuel and biomass burning, climate changes can be responsible, among others, for differences in carbon isotopic fractionation (Farquhar and Lloyd, 1993; Saurer et al., 2004; Guerrieri et al. 2011; Choi et al., 2005; McCarroll et al., 2009; Pazdur et al., 2013; Sensuła and Pazdur, 2013b). Since the 1970s, most paleoclimate studies have concentrated on the α-cellulose analysis as the dominant and most easily isolated wood component (e.g. Craig, 1954; Libby and Pandolfi, 1974; Leavitt and Long, 1982; Ehrelinger and Vogel, 1993; McCarroll and Water Air Soil Pollut (2016) 227: 68 Loader, 2004; Sensuła et al., 2006; Pazdur et al., 2007; McCarroll et al., 2009; Rinne et al., 2010; Savard 2010). Cellulose ([C6H10O5]n, m.w. above 1.5 · 106) is the major constituent of all plant materials. The large molecular size and insolubility make it difficult to precisely determine the chemical and physical properties of the intact cellulose polymer. Cellulose is a linear homopolymer built from β-1,4-linked glucose units (Gardner and Blackwell, 1974; Sjostrom, 1993), and glucose (C6H12O6) is one of the main products of photosynthesis, and this molecule participates in respiration. Carbon isotope fractionation is highly correlated with the ratio of photosynthetic carbon assimilation to transpiration; therefore, carbon isotope fractionation is highly correlated with plant water use efficiency (Farquhar et al., 1989; Farquhar and Lloyd, 1993). Water is commonly the most limiting environmental factor for tree growth, and water may be limiting in urban environments where different factors, such as, among others, elevated t (...truncated)