photosynthate

The second phase of verasion is called the photosynthate accumulation and it depends on temperature, as was previously describe by Willis E :

Keenan's Comment on Chuine « Climate Audit 2006

Therefore, it looks like in those locations where temperatures stay too low all year to allow all the photosynthate to be “used up,” temperature can limit growth rate for those trees which can manufacture more photosynthate than can be used up e.g., those with lots of foliage.

The RE Benchmark in A&W « Climate Audit 2006

A period of approximately a month occurs between the end of photosynthate and the beginning of harvest where maturation is effectively independent of temperature.

Keenan's Comment on Chuine « Climate Audit 2006

On closer examination with actual temperatures, it turns out, as Willis E noted earlier, the photosynthate process is relatively insensitive to the normal temperatures at which it operates in Dijon and even slows when an optimum temperature is exceeded.

Keenan's Comment on Chuine « Climate Audit 2006

I used the daily Dijon temperatures for the years 2002 and 2003 to calculate the flowering, cell elongation completion and photosynthate completion dates using the Chuine pinot noir grape maturation equations published in Nature.

Keenan's Comment on Chuine « Climate Audit 2006

I had earlier noted that the cell elongation process had a steeper slope with temperature than that of the photosynthate process and suggested that because of this one might expect cell elongation period temperatures to correlate better with the harvest dates than the photosynthate period.

Keenan's Comment on Chuine « Climate Audit 2006

Thus they consumed photosynthate in the winter; since dark respiration is sensitive to temperature, this would create an inverse relationship between ring widths and winter temperature, other things being equal.

The RE Benchmark in A&W « Climate Audit 2006

Your point about the model being much more sensitive to temperature during the cell-elongation phase than during the photosynthate-accumulation phase seems right.

Keenan's Comment on Chuine « Climate Audit 2006

Unlike most pines, they continue to respire during the winter thereby consuming photosynthate Schulze et al., 1967.

More on MBH98 Cross-Validation R2 « Climate Audit 2005

3. Considering that it probably gets warm enough for long enough in most locations (except maybe treeline) to use all the photosynthate availablea (consider evolution here), water and nutrient stresses probably usually dominate in controlling growth.

The RE Benchmark in A&W « Climate Audit 2006