Use of ¹⁴C/C Ratios to Provide Insights into the Magnitude of Carbon Turnover in the Crustose Saxicolous Lichen Caloplaca Trachyphylla

Abstract

¹⁴C/C ratios in samples from radial transects across individual thalli of Caloplaca trachyphylla collected at two sites were measured and the results used to investigate whether ¹⁴C/C data might provide some insight into the magnitude of carbon turnover in this lichen species. The ¹⁴C/C data suggest that significant internal recycling/translocation of carbon is unlikely in the sampled thalli. However, converting the ¹⁴C/C data for the larger intact thalli sampled at each site to calendar years, using the atmospheric ⊃14C record, does not yield constant or even monotonically varying growth rates. Since crustose lichen growth rates are constant or decrease with thallus size, and since the ¹⁴C/C data from these larger thalli show a relatively small spread in ¹⁴C/C data values compared to the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric ⊃14C record over the past 50 years, the ¹⁴C/C data suggest that carbon turnover may be occurring. Carbon turnover was modelled starting with the atmospheric ⊃14C record. Turnover was incorporated so that for each year in the record a constant percentage of the total carbon was lost annually and replaced by new photosynthetically fixed carbon with a ¹⁴C/C ratio equal to that of the contemporary atmosphere. The ¹⁴C/C data from the radial samples were then converted to a calendar year using the model record. Constant annual carbon turnover values of 0, 0·5, 1, 1·5, 2, 2·5, 3, 3·5, 4, 4·5, 5, 5·5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 50% were modelled. Carbon turnover values between 3 and 6% created ⊃14C model records that when applied to ¹⁴C/C data from the thalli produced constant radial growth rates that were: (1) identical for all lichens at a given site, and (2) independent of lichen size at a given site. The ¹⁴C/C data further indicate that annual carbon turnover in this species of lichen is <10%, independent of the nature of thallus radial growth. The data and modelling suggest that carbon turnover might provide a simple explanation for the ¹⁴C/C data from the thalli and might explain the discrepancies between the standard atmospheric ⊃14C record and the ¹⁴C/C ratios observed in C. trachyphylla.