A band model of cambium development: Opportunities and prospects

Abstract

More than 60% of tree phytomass is concentrated in stem wood, which is the result of periodic activity of the cambium. Nevertheless, there are few attempts to quantitatively describe cambium dynamics. In this study, we develop a state‐of‐the‐art band model of cambium development, based on the kinetic heterogeneity of the cambial zone and the connectivity of the cell structure. The model describes seasonal cambium development based on an exponential function under climate forcing which can be effectively used to estimate the seasonal cell production for individual trees. It was shown that the model is able to simulate different cell production for fast‐, middle‐ and slow‐growing trees under the same climate forcing. Based on actual measurements of cell production for two contrasted trees, the model effectively reconstructed long‐term cell production variability (up to 75% of explained variance) of both tree‐ring characteristics over the period 1937−2012. The new model significantly simplifies the assessment of seasonal cell production for individual trees of a studied forest stand and allows the entire range of individual absolute variability in the ring formation of any tree in the stand to be quantified, which can lead to a better understanding of the anatomy of xylem formation, a key component of the carbon cycle. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.