Carbon dynamics in the deciduous broadleaf tree Erman's birch (<i>Betula ermanii</i>) at the subalpine treeline on Changbai Mountain, Northeast China

<jats:sec><jats:title>Premise of the Study</jats:title><jats:p>The growth limitation hypothesis (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GLH</jats:styled-content>) and carbon limitation hypothesis (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CLH</jats:styled-content>) are two dominant explanations for treeline formation. The <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GLH</jats:styled-content> proposes that low temperature drives the treeline through constraining C sinks more than C sources, and it predicts that non‐structural carbohydrate (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NSC</jats:styled-content>) levels are static or increase with elevation. Although the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GLH</jats:styled-content> has received strong support globally for evergreen treelines, there is still no consensus for deciduous treelines, which experience great asynchrony between supply and demand throughout the year.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>We investigated growth and the growing‐season C dynamics in a common deciduous species, Erman's birch (<jats:italic>Betula ermanii</jats:italic>), along an elevational gradient from the closed forest to the treeline on Changbai Mountain, Northeast China. Samples were collected from developing organs (leaves and twigs) and main storage organs (stems and roots) for <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NSC</jats:styled-content> analysis.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Key Results</jats:title><jats:p>Tree growth decreased with increasing elevation, and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NSC</jats:styled-content> concentrations differed significantly among elevations, organs, and sampling times. In particular, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NSC</jats:styled-content> levels varied slightly during the growing season in leaves, peaked in the middle of the growing season in twigs and stems, and increased continuously throughout the growing season in roots. <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NSC</jats:styled-content>s also tended to increase or vary slightly in developing organs but decreased significantly in mature organs with increasing elevation.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The decrease in <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NSC</jats:styled-content>s with elevation in main storage organs indicates support for the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CLH</jats:styled-content>, while the increasing or static trends in new developing organs indicate support for the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GLH</jats:styled-content>. Our results suggest that the growth limitation theory may be less applicable to deciduous species' growth than to that of evergreen species.</jats:p></jats:sec>