Carbon cycling through plant and fungal herbarium specimens tracks the Suess effect over more than a century of environmental change

Abstract

Although the anthropogenic decline in atmospheric carbon stable isotope ratios (δ¹³C) over the last 150 years (termed the Suess effect) is well-studied, how different terrestrial trophic levels and modes reflect this decline remains unresolved. To evaluate the Suess effect as an opportunistic tracer of terrestrial forest carbon cycling, this study analyzed the δ¹³C in herbarium specimens collected in Minnesota, USA from 1877 to 2019. Our results suggest that both broadleaf trees and ectomycorrhizal fungi relied on recent photosynthate to produce leaves and sporocarps, while saprotrophic fungi on average used carbon fixed from the atmosphere 32–55 years ago for sporocarp construction. The δ¹³C values of saprotrophic fungal collections were also sensitive to the age of their plant carbon substrate, with sporocarps of twig specialists tracking changes in atmospheric δ¹³C more closely than saprotrophs growing on logs. Collectively, this study indicates that natural history collections can quantitatively track carbon cycling among plants and fungi over time.