AUTHOR=Lin Chuan-Ya , Miki Takeshi , Kume Tomonori TITLE=Potential Factors Canceling Interannual Cycles of Shoot Production in a Moso Bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) Stand JOURNAL=Frontiers in Forests and Global Change VOLUME=5 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.913426 DOI=10.3389/ffgc.2022.913426 ISSN=2624-893X ABSTRACT=

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) forests are utilized for food, building materials, and carbon fixation in East Asia. Hence, understanding the factors that influence productivity is important. Long-term records of managed Moso bamboo forests have provided evidence for 2-year cycles of new shoot production. A widely accepted explanatory hypothesis is that the 2-year leaf life span and unequal proportions of newer and older leaves in bamboo stands are the cause of the 2-year shoot production cycle. However, 2-year cycles are not observed in all circumstances. If the 2-year leaf life span causes the biennial production cycle, why are the 2-year cycles of new shoot production not observed in some periods? By constructing an age-structured population growth model that considered the Moso bamboo leaf life span, this study aimed to clarify the possible mechanisms that could suppress the 2-year cycle of new shoot production. The simulation demonstrated that the 2-year cycle may readily disappear because of the contribution of considerable carbohydrates originating from photosynthesis in old leaves and in new leaves of zero-year-old culms, and from belowground carbon storage in roots and rhizomes. The results suggested that the contribution of photosynthesis in old leaves and in new leaves of zero-year-old culms may be overlooked at the population scale, and that belowground carbon storage in Moso bamboo rhizome systems might act as buffer to stabilize the year-to-year variations in new shoot production.