The strategies of Norway spruce [Picea abies (L.) Karst.] to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration (C a) are not entirely clear. Here, we reconstructed centennial trajectories of leaf internal CO2 concentration (C i) and intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi) from the amount of 13C in tree-ring cellulose. We collected 57 cores across elevations, soil, and atmospheric conditions in central Europe. Generally, WUEi and C i increased over the last 100 years and the C i/C a ratio remained almost constant. However, two groups were distinguished. The first group showed a quasi-linear response to C a and the sensitivity of C i to C a (s = dC i/dC a) ranged from 0 to 1. Trees in the second group showed nonmonotonic responses with extremes during the peak of industrial air pollution in the 1980s and s increase from -1 to +1.6. Our study shows a marked attenuation of the rise in WUEi during the 20th century leading to invariant WUEi in recent decades.

Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology Faculty of Science Charles University Albertov 6 12843 Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 165 21 Prague 6 Suchdol Czech Republic

Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia Branišovská 31 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

IFER Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research Čs armády 655 254 01 Jílové u Prahy Czech Republic

Institute of Botany AS CR Zámek 1 252 43 Průhonice Czech Republic

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