Drought and the Impact on Sap Production

[Paul01036]

Good afternoon All-

Anyone have any ideas on how a significant drought like we have been experiencing globally but more specifically in the North East impacts the sap production. Does less ground water force the trees to work differently in producing sap? I would like to hear your thoughts.

Thank you

[DrTimPerkins]

Sap flow is more dependent on soil moisture during the spring itself...so snowmelt and rain during the spring are quite important. However, there seems to be a couple of impacts on sap sugar content and tree growth. Think of leaves as the engine of the tree. The fuel is sunlight. But in order for that engine to run at peak levels, everything else needs to be operating correctly. If soil moisture is lacking, stomates in the leaves close, so CO2 cannot enter the leaves and be "fixed" into sugars. So drought reduces photosynthetic carbon gain (production of sugars), resulting in reduced growth and less storage or sugars in that ring of wood formed during that time. Fortunately, the sugar we collect as maple producers in sap comes from many tree rings (20-30 depending on tree growth rate and taphole depth), but the outermost tree rings tend to be the most productive (more sugar and higher hydraulic conductivity...meaning the younger pipes/vessels work better), so there can be some small reduction in sap sugar content due to drought. This is more apparent when we have several years of drought in a row.

I apologize if this seems too complicated...but that is really the simple explanation. The details would make heads spin.

[canaanmaple]

I apologize if this seems too complicated...but that is really the simple explanation. The details would make heads spin.

it was a great explanation! Now I am curious to when the trees are most susceptible to drought conditions We had a very dry June and July, but then it rained almost every day in August. The leaves have been turning color here but they seem to be a week or two behind in color what they normally are at this time which is interesting... Also, usually the red maples are the first to start turning then sugars. This year they are about the same time.

[Sugar Bear]

Sap flow is more dependent on soil moisture during the spring itself...so snowmelt and rain during the spring are quite important. However, there seems to be a couple of impacts on sap sugar content and tree growth. Think of leaves as the engine of the tree. The fuel is sunlight. But in order for that engine to run at peak levels, everything else needs to be operating correctly. If soil moisture is lacking, stomates in the leaves close, so CO2 cannot enter the leaves and be "fixed" into sugars. So drought reduces photosynthetic carbon gain (production of sugars), resulting in reduced growth and less storage or sugars in that ring of wood formed during that time. Fortunately, the sugar we collect as maple producers in sap comes from many tree rings (20-30 depending on tree growth rate and taphole depth), but the outermost tree rings tend to be the most productive (more sugar and higher hydraulic conductivity...meaning the younger pipes/vessels work better), so there can be some small reduction in sap sugar content due to drought. This is more apparent when we have several years of drought in a row.

I apologize if this seems too complicated...but that is really the simple explanation. The details would make heads spin.

Interesting stuff.

Do Medullary Rays ever shut down at a certain depth/growth ring and eventually abandon sugar deep within the cellulose of a trunk? I.E. if we have drought in the spring and poor sap flow over consecutive years.

Its seems the answer would be yes or most woods would not have that sweet smell when I cut them as lumber. Even the Pith section almost as well.

And so my ultimate question here would be does drought in any given season increase the rate or amount of abandonment over time?

Or is the abandonment only nominal after several drought seasons in a row?

[DrTimPerkins]

Do Medullary Rays ever shut down at a certain depth/growth ring and eventually abandon sugar deep within the cellulose of a trunk? I.E. if we have drought in the spring and poor sap flow over consecutive years.

Heartwood formation is not programmed that specifically (to certain rings or ages) in maple trees. It is quite variable as you'll have noticed when cutting trees up.
Hydraulic function (ability to move liquid) and carbohydrate levels (starch and sugar) drop off from the outermost to innermost rings. There is certainly almost always some residual non-structural carbohydrate remaining in wood that gets walled off, and is therefore no longer accessible to the tree. Of course, stained wood produced by tapping is also no longer functional for liquid movement or carbohydrate storage. It is essentially structural at that point, but little else.

And so my ultimate question here would be does drought in any given season increase the rate or amount of abandonment over time?

Or is the abandonment only nominal after several drought seasons in a row?

Good questions. No good answers. I doubt that (in sugar maple at least) there is a real strong relationship for any one particular season of dry weather. Drought will clearly reduce basal growth and carbohydrate production/storage. Perhaps there would be a stronger relationship in ring-porous trees like oak where functionality drops off very quickly with depth, but I can't say for sure, partly because maple is a bit of an oddball species and partly because we think mostly in terms of what is going on with sap flow during an odd part of the year for most plants. Most tree physiology deals with sap flow during the growing season. We deal with sap flow during the so-called "dormant" season.

[Sugar Bear]

Yes, what you say makes sense, and we should all be able to deduce this because it seems it would be senseless for a tree to evolve itself to rely so heavily on one summer worth of food production.

To me it seems like a tree that did that would be a serious evolutionary failure.

But I suppose some trees may make a go of it that way.

[therealtreehugger]

So it sounds like we might get lower sugar content. Will this affect the amount of sap as well? Or should we get roughly the same amount of sap, but less sugar? I know there are many many other factors to consider, but all other things being equal.
Thanks - Becky

[maple flats]

The amount of sap depends on soil moisture in the spring, like Dr Tim said, snowmelt and rain leading into and during the maple season

[Andy VT]

Is there a point at which, one should look at the summer drought conditions and decide, for the long term sake of your sugarbush, skip a year? It sounds like some folks have already made that call for this coming season. (or maybe it was just one folk. Someone mentioned it)

[SeanD]

Personally, I'm not going to skip a year based on this year's drought. I've had years where the sugar content is lower, but the volume of sap due to good conditions in the spring is very high. I've also had years where the sugar content of the sap is higher, but the conditions in the spring have led to a short season with low volume. I'd much rather have the former.

I've only been at this since '06, but in that relatively shorter time I've had a few serious droughts and two years of really bad gypsy moths. Each time I expected a direct impact on sugar and it didn't seem to materialize - at least in an obvious way. The other thing I've found is sugar production is really micro-regional. My area (eastern Mass) is in the the worst drought in years, but my trees appear to be far less stressed than previous droughts. I've had Augusts and early Septembers where the leaves are spotty and dropping in big numbers. This year there's been some leaf drop but not as bad as previous years. Maybe there was enough rain in the early part of the summer to get the trees through. I have no idea.

All that said, I will skip individual trees if I notice it's not doing well, especially if it's young. I had a big dead oak taken down this summer (gypsy moths) and they had to limb some 10" sugars pretty heavily to get to it. I'm going to give those trees a year off.