Soil biogeochemistry across Central and South American tropical dry forests
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Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗
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Scaling from Flux Towers to Ecosystem Models: Regional Constraints on Carbon Cycle Processes from Atmospheric Carbonyl Sulfide (Final Report)
DOE supported research suggests that gross primary productivity (GPP) is largely underestimated by global earth system models [Welp et al., 2011], reflecting the persistent challenge in extrapolating from local-scale GPP observations to global-scale earth system models. This poor understanding of GPP at large spatial scales is of particular concern in tropical forests. In tropical forests, some earth systems models forecast a powerful feedback between a warming climate and a decline in GPP resulting in forest dieback. While this simulated feedback is intensely debated, we lack robust large-scale constraints on GPP that are needed to resolve this debate. In particular, carbon dioxide measurements provide valuable information on net carbon flux, but not on the gross flux associated with GPP. Here we conducted a study of regional-to-global scale GPP using atmospheric carbonyl sulfide to provide a new constraint on GPP mechanisms in earth system models. Our project activities integrated modeling, in situ measurement, and remote sensing techniques to resolve GPP for the Amazon as well as global scale trends. The results of this work included initiating airborne carbonyl sulfide monitoring in the Amazon, training for postdocs and graduate students at a Hispanic Serving Institution, fundamental advances in carbonyl sulfide budgets [e.g. Hilton et al., Nature Climate Change, 2017], and high-profile publications that focused on GPP trends for the Amazon [Stinecipher et al., GRL, 2022] and global historical GPP trends [Campbell, et al., Nature, 2017]. Based on the suggestion of our DOE program manager, we published a state-of-the-science commentary to the scientific community on GPP monitoring with COS [Campbell et al., EOS, 2017] which was selected as the cover story. DOE support was acknowledged in all reports. The importance of this research to understanding climate change was communicated to the general public through community seminars (Rotary, Public Libraries, State Parks), an op-ed (SF Chronicle), and interviews in the mass media including two stories in the New York Times (4/5/17; 7/30/18), one of which was especially widely read after it was featured in the New York Time’s Quote of the Day.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Combining field and remote sensing data to estimate forest canopy damage and recovery following tropical cyclones across tropical regions
Abstract As tropical forests cycle the most water and carbon, it is crucial to understand the short- and long-term effects of intensifying cyclones on these ecosystems. Soil nutrient status has been shown to moderate forest cyclone responses using field litterfall measurements, but litterfall is one of the multiple cyclone impact metrtics, which may or may not be correlated with one another or with site nutrients. We used remotely sensed vegetation indices to quantify immediate damage and two-year recovery for 42 cases across nine tropical forests in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Australia, and Taiwan affected by 12 cyclones between 2004 and 2017. We tested whether changes in leaf area index (LAI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) correlated with changes in litterfall observations and how changes varied with total soil phosphorus (P) concentrations across regions. We compared cyclone-induced changes and recovery of LAI and EVI to litterfall observations compiled in a pantropical meta-analysis. We found large variation in changes in LAI and EVI across forests, with the greatest reductions in LAI (−77%) and EVI (−77%) in Mexico (Jalisco) and Puerto Rico, respectively. LAI ( r = −0.52) and EVI ( r = −0.60) changes correlated with those in litterfall across cases. Post-cyclone data showed recovery of LAI by four months, EVI by two months, and litterfall by ten months. We detected larger changes in LAI and EVI in forests with higher soil P, but these relationships were not significant when accounting for cyclone and site as random effects. Principal component analyses indicated a regional clustering of cases related to their contrasting cyclone regimes, with the frequency and intensity of cyclone events negatively correlated. Overall, remote sensing observations complement but do not substitute for ground observations that reveal cyclone damage and post-cyclone recovery in tropical forests, and soil phosphorus moderates some but not all metrics of stability in response to cyclones.
Bloom, Dellena E. (ORCID:0000000205981747)↗
Intra-annual variation in microclimatic conditions in relation to vegetation type and structure in two tropical dry forests undergoing secondary succession
Microclimate acts as a strong filter on species performance in restored and regenerating forests, particularly in seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF). Yet few studies have measured microclimate patterns across succession in SDTF. Furthermore, although dynamic vegetation models simulate microclimate, evaluation of these simulated variables with field observations has been relatively uncommon. Here, we investigated the seasonal patterns of soil temperature and soil water in naturally regenerated and planted successional vegetation in SDTF in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico, using complementary approaches of intensive field observations and simulation modeling with the Ecosystem Demography model. We found that plots representing later successional stages were wetter on average, but only during the dry season. During the wet season, mean soil water did not differ across vegetation types, but open, early successional vegetation experienced more frequent extreme wet and dry conditions than older forest and plantations. Soil temperature tended to decline with forest structure, and later successional vegetation also experienced less extreme daily temperature fluctuations. Basal area and leaf area index were the best predictors of differences in soil water and temperature across plots. Model simulations were consistent with observations of wet season soil temperature and soil water, but the model failed to reproduce dry season soil moisture dynamics, suggesting that further work is needed to reduce model biases in microclimate variables. Collectively, our results imply that common assumptions about how microclimates influence successional processes in SDTF should be revisited.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Vegetation survey in Amazonia using LANDSAT data
Automatic Image-100 analysis of LANDSAT data was performed using the MAXVER classification algorithm. In the pilot area, four vegetation units were mapped automatically in addition to the areas occupied for agricultural activities. The Image-100 classified results together with a soil map and information from RADAR images, permitted the establishment of the final legend with six classes: semi-deciduous tropical forest; low land evergreen tropical forest; secondary vegetation; tropical forest of humid areas, predominant pastureland and flood plains. Two water types were identified based on their sediments indicating different geological and geomorphological aspects.
Parada, N. D. J.↗
Throughfall-Reduction Drying Effects on Forest Floor Plant Tissue Biomass (Oi+Oe soil horizons) and Moisture Content in Four Lowland Panamanian Forests
Objectives: Climatic drying is predicted for many tropical forests, yet effects on soil properties across moisture and soil gradients within tropical forests remain poorly characterized, hampering predictions of forest-climate feedbacks. We hypothesized that drying would suppress soil CO2 fluxes (i.e., respiration) in already-drier tropical forests by further reductions in soil moisture, but increases CO2 fluxes in wetter tropical forests by alleviating anaerobiosis and soil saturation. We measured soil CO2 fluxes, soil moisture, soil temperature, and forest floor biomass during wet-dry cycles (2015 – 2022) in four Panamanian forests that vary in rainfall and soil fertility. We also surveyed all tree species and identified to species in 2018 and 2019.Results: We found that soil moisture peaked in the wet season and declined in the dry season. Measured soil CO2 fluxes declined in the dry season and peaked in the early wet season ahead of peak soil moisture, resulting in a lower soil moisture optimum for respiration than previously modeled. Forest floor biomass peaked in the dry season, in contrast. Chronic throughfall exclusion also suppressed soil moisture across the four forests to 20cm depths, and also initially suppressed soil CO2 fluxes across forests. There was sustained suppression of soil CO2 fluxes after four years in the wettest forest only (-28 ± 4% during the dry season), but elevated soil CO2 fluxes in a fertile forest after four years (+75 ± 28% during the late wet season). The unexpected negative drying effect in the wettest, most infertile forest could have resulted from reduced vertical flushing of nutrients into soils, as the drying effect increased with time. Including hydro-nutrient interactions in ecosystem models could improve predictions of tropical forest-climate feedbacks (results presented in Cusack et al. 2023). Datasets included: Datasets included here include .csv and .xls files for forest floor biomass (equivalent to the Oi+Oe soil horizons), and a subset include forest floor biomass moisture content (weight/weight) in the study plots. There is also a .kml file that includes coordinates for all 32 plots included in the study of four forests (n = 4 throughfall reduction and n = 4 control plots per site). No special software is needed to open these files.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Throughfall-Reduction Drying Effects on Soil Moisture and Soil Temperature at 30-Minute Intervals Four Lowland Panamanian Forests
Objectives: Climatic drying is predicted for many tropical forests, yet effects on soil properties across moisture and soil gradients within tropical forests remain poorly characterized, hampering predictions of forest-climate feedbacks. We hypothesized that drying would suppress soil CO2 fluxes (i.e., respiration) in already-drier tropical forests by further reductions in soil moisture, but increases CO2 fluxes in wetter tropical forests by alleviating anaerobiosis and soil saturation. We measured soil CO2 fluxes, soil moisture, soil temperature, and forest floor biomass during wet-dry cycles (2015 – 2022) in four Panamanian forests that vary in rainfall and soil fertility. We also surveyed all tree species and identified to species in 2018 and 2019.Results: We found that soil moisture peaked in the wet season and declined in the dry season. Measured soil CO2 fluxes declined in the dry season and peaked in the early wet season ahead of peak soil moisture, resulting in a lower soil moisture optimum for respiration than previously modeled. Chronic throughfall exclusion also suppressed soil moisture across the four forests, and also initially suppressed soil CO2 fluxes across forests. There was sustained suppression of soil CO2 fluxes after four years in the wettest forest only (-28 ± 4% during the dry season), but elevated soil CO2 fluxes in a fertile forest after four years (+75 ± 28% during the late wet season). The unexpected negative drying effect in the wettest, most infertile forest could have resulted from reduced vertical flushing of nutrients into soils, as the drying effect increased with time. Including hydro-nutrient interactions in ecosystem models could improve predictions of tropical forest-climate feedbacks (Cusack et al. 2023). Datasets included: Datasets here include .csv and .xls files for volumetric soil moisture (volume/volume) and soil temperature (°C). Data were taken at 30-minute intervals at 5cm and 20cm depths using permanent probes and data loggers (see methods). Data presented are from 2018-2019. There is also a .kml file that includes coordinates for all 32 plots included in the study of four forests (n = 4 throughfall reduction and n = 4 control plots per site). No special software is needed to open these files.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Thermal stress in degraded forests in the Brazilian Amazon Arc of Deforestation
Understanding thermal stress in tropical forests has taken on new urgency in light of accelerating climate change and expansion of deforestation and forest degradation. Degraded tropical forests in particular may be approaching critical temperature thresholds even more rapidly than intact forests, with implications for tree survival and ecosystem recovery. We investigate thermal stress in degraded tropical forests within the Brazilian Amazon Arc of Deforestation. Using land surface temperature data from the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on the international Space Station (ECOSTRESS), we compared canopy temperatures of intact, selectively logged, and burned forests in Feliz Natal, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Upper canopy temperatures in previously burned forests were 4.1% higher (mean = 36.5 °C) and 50.9% more variable compared to intact and logged forests, which showed remarkably similar temperature distributions (means of 34.9 °C and 35.1 °C, respectively). Modeled leaf temperature distributions based on canopy temperature measurements from one of the warmest days in a 2 year dry season record indicated that 87% of leaves in the warmest burned forest patches exceeded the temperature threshold where respiration surpasses photosynthesis, compared to approximately 72%–74% in intact and logged forests, respectively, in the same time period. After controlling for environmental factors, burned forests were predicted to be 2.6 °C warmer on average [1.39 °C–3.96 °C, 95% credible interval] than intact forests across a 5–40 m canopy height range. Burned forests showed modest thermal recovery over time, with temperatures decreasing by approximately 1.2 °C over a 30 year recovery period. In contrast, logged forests showed minimal thermal differences from intact forests (−0.353 on average, [−1.125–0.274, 95% credible interval]) and negligible change (0.15 °C) over the same timeframe. While the absolute probabilities of exceeding damaging thermal thresholds remain low across all forest types under current climate conditions, the probability of leaves exceeding temperatures that cause permanent leaf damage was ten times higher in burned forests, with implications for the future of burned forest regeneration in water-limited regions of the Amazon basin. In particular, the combination of higher mean temperatures, greater temperature variability, and more frequent exposure to damaging thermal thresholds implies that burned tropical forests will experience substantially higher mortality rates and slower biomass recovery compared to intact and selectively logged forests, especially in water-limited regions where trees cannot rely on evaporative cooling to moderate canopy temperatures.
Brazilian Amazon Arc of Deforestation↗
LiDAR-based aboveground biomass changes data of tropical montane forest in Borneo
Anthropogenic activities are increasingly impacting the carbon storage of tropical montane forests. We employed airborne LiDAR data to estimate the aboveground biomass (AGB) changes at high resolution in a human-modified tropical montane forest in northern Borneo. The data package consists of LiDAR-based AGB changes at 1m resolution in GeoTIFF format, a table of field and estimated AGB changes at plot level and a shape file of the plots’ coordinates. The raster data (GeoTIFF) at 1 m resolution covers two study sites (site 1: 2.67 km x 8 km; site 2: 2 km x 8 km). The GeoTIFF and shape files can be read using any GIS or image processing software. The dataset can be utilized to deepen our understanding of the carbon storage of tropical montane forests, establish reference values for Southeast Asian tropical montane forests, guide forest resource managers on rehabilitation strategies and further research on the impacts of anthropogenic land use activities.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Forest structure and solar-induced fluorescence across intact and degraded forests in the Amazon
Tropical forest degradation (e.g., anthropogenic disturbances such as selective logging and fires) alters forest structure and function and influences the forest's carbon sink. In this study, we explored structure-function relationships across a variety of degradation levels in the southern Brazilian Amazon by 1) investigating how forest structural properties vary as a function of degradation history using airborne lidar data; 2) assessing the effects of degradation on solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) seasonality using TROPOMI data; and 3) quantifying the contribution of structural variables to SIF using multiple regression models with stepwise selection of lidar metrics. Forest degradation history was obtained through Landsat time-series classification. We found that fire, logging, and time since disturbance were major determinants of forest structure, and that forests affected by fires experienced larger variability in leaf area index (LAI), canopy height and vertical structure relative to logged and intact forests. Moreover, only recently burned forests showed significantly depressed SIF during the dry season compared to intact forests. Canopy height and the vertical distribution of foliage were the best predictors of SIF. Unexpectedly, we found that wet-season SIF was higher in active regenerating forests (~ 4 years after fires or logging) compared with intact forests, despite lower LAI. Furthermore, our findings help to elucidate the mechanisms of carbon accumulation in anthropogenically disturbed tropical forests and indicate that they can capture large amounts of carbon while recovering.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Throughfall-Reduction Drying Effects on Gravimetric Soil Moisture at Two Depths in Four Lowland Panamanian Forests from 2015-2022
Objectives: Climatic drying is predicted for many tropical forests, yet effects on soil properties across moisture and soil gradients within tropical forests remain poorly characterized, hampering predictions of forest-climate feedbacks. We hypothesized that drying would suppress soil CO2 fluxes (i.e., respiration) in already-drier tropical forests by further reductions in soil moisture, but increases CO2 fluxes in wetter tropical forests by alleviating anaerobiosis and soil saturation. We measured soil CO2 fluxes, soil moisture, soil temperature, and forest floor biomass during wet-dry cycles (2015 – 2022) in four Panamanian forests that vary in rainfall and soil fertility. We also surveyed all tree species and identified to species in 2018 and 2019.Results: We found that soil moisture peaked in the wet season and declined in the dry season. Measured soil CO2 fluxes declined in the dry season and peaked in the early wet season ahead of peak soil moisture, resulting in a lower soil moisture optimum for respiration than previously modeled. Chronic throughfall exclusion also suppressed soil moisture across the four forests to 20cm depths, and also initially suppressed soil CO2 fluxes across forests. There was sustained suppression of soil CO2 fluxes after four years in the wettest forest only (-28 ± 4% during the dry season), but elevated soil CO2 fluxes in a fertile forest after four years (+75 ± 28% during the late wet season). The unexpected negative drying effect in the wettest, most infertile forest could have resulted from reduced vertical flushing of nutrients into soils, as the drying effect increased with time. Including hydro-nutrient interactions in ecosystem models could improve predictions of tropical forest-climate feedbacks (results presented in Cusack et al. 2023). Datasets included: Datasets included here include .csv and .xls files for gravimetric soil moisture (weight/weight). Soil moisture was collected on a quarterly basis from 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths using hand-held constant-volume soil corers. Data are on ~3 month timescales from 2015-2022 with some gaps. There is also a .kml file that includes coordinates for all 32 plots included in the study of four forests (n = 4 throughfall reduction and n = 4 control plots per site). No special software is needed to open these files.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Throughfall-Reduction Drying Effects on Soil Respiration, Moisture, and Temperature in Four Distinct Lowland Panamanian Forests from 2015-2022
Objectives: Climatic drying is predicted for many tropical forests, yet effects on soil properties across moisture and soil gradients within tropical forests remain poorly characterized, hampering predictions of forest-climate feedbacks. We hypothesized that throughfall reduction (i.e. chronic drying) would suppress soil CO2 fluxes (i.e., respiration) in already-drier tropical forests by further reductions in soil moisture, but increases CO2 fluxes in wetter tropical forests by alleviating anaerobiosis and soil saturation. We conducted a field study in four distinct lowland Panamanian forests that vary in background rainfall and soil fertility. In each forest we constructed throughfall reduction structures that reduce moisture inputs to plots by ~50% (see methods). In drying and paired control plots we measured soil CO2 fluxes, soil moisture (volume/volume), soil temperature (°C), air temperature (°C), and forest floor biomass during wet-dry cycles (2015 – 2022). We also collected litterfall biomass and surveyed all tree species for diameter at breast height (dbh), and identified tree species in 2018 and 2019.Results:We found that soil moisture peaked in the wet season and declined in the dry season. Measured soil CO2 fluxes declined in the dry season and peaked in the early wet season ahead of peak soil moisture, resulting in a lower soil moisture optimum for respiration than previously modeled. Chronic throughfall exclusion also suppressed soil moisture across the four forests, and also initially suppressed soil CO2 fluxes across forests. There was sustained suppression of soil CO2 fluxes after four years in the wettest forest only (-28 ± 4% during the dry season), but elevated soil CO2 fluxes in a fertile forest after four years (+75 ± 28% during the late wet season). The unexpected negative drying effect in the wettest, most infertile forest could have resulted from reduced vertical flushing of nutrients into soils, as the drying effect increased with time. Including hydro-nutrient interactions in ecosystem models could improve predictions of tropical forest-climate feedbacks. Datasets included: Datasets included here include .csv and .xls files for soil respiration (carbon dioxide flux) collected using the LiCor (see methods), air temperature °C , soil moisture (vl/vl), and soil temperature °C. Soil moisture and soil temperature were collected at 0-10cm depths using hand-held probes (see methods). Data are on ~3 week timescales from 2015-2022 with some gaps. There is also a .kml file that includes coordinates for all 32 plots included in the study of four forests (n = 4 throughfall reduction and n = 4 control plots per site). No special software is needed to open these files.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Contrasting Patterns of Damage and Recovery in Logged Amazon Forests From Small Footprint LiDAR Data
Tropical forests ecosystems respond dynamically to climate variability and disturbances on time scales of minutes to millennia. To date, our knowledge of disturbance and recovery processes in tropical forests is derived almost exclusively from networks of forest inventory plots. These plots typically sample small areas (less than or equal to 1 ha) in conservation units that are protected from logging and fire. Amazon forests with frequent disturbances from human activity remain under-studied. Ongoing negotiations on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus enhancing forest carbon stocks) have placed additional emphasis on identifying degraded forests and quantifying changing carbon stocks in both degraded and intact tropical forests. We evaluated patterns of forest disturbance and recovery at four -1000 ha sites in the Brazilian Amazon using small footprint LiDAR data and coincident field measurements. Large area coverage with airborne LiDAR data in 2011-2012 included logged and unmanaged areas in Cotriguacu (Mato Grosso), Fiona do Jamari (Rondonia), and Floresta Estadual do Antimary (Acre), and unmanaged forest within Reserva Ducke (Amazonas). Logging infrastructure (skid trails, log decks, and roads) was identified using LiDAR returns from understory vegetation and validated based on field data. At each logged site, canopy gaps from logging activity and LiDAR metrics of canopy heights were used to quantify differences in forest structure between logged and unlogged areas. Contrasting patterns of harvesting operations and canopy damages at the three logged sites reflect different levels of pre-harvest planning (i.e., informal logging compared to state or national logging concessions), harvest intensity, and site conditions. Finally, we used multi-temporal LiDAR data from two sites, Reserva Ducke (2009, 2012) and Antimary (2010, 2011), to evaluate gap phase dynamics in unmanaged forest areas. The rates and patterns of canopy gap formation at these sites illustrate potential issues for separating logging damages from natural forest disturbances over longer time scales. Multi-temporal airborne LiDAR data and coincident field measurements provide complementary perspectives on disturbance and recovery processes in intact and degraded Amazon forests. Compared to forest inventory plots, the large size of each individual site permitted analyses of landscape-scale processes that would require extremely high investments to study using traditional forest inventory methods.
Morton, D. C.↗
Beyond leaf habit: generalities in plant function across 97 tropical dry forest tree species
Leaf habit has been hypothesized to define a linkage between the slow-fast plant economic spectrum and the drought resistance-avoidance trade-off in tropical forests (‘slow-safe vs fast-risky’). However, variation in hydraulic traits as a function of leaf habit has rarely been explored for a large number of species. We sampled leaf and branch functional traits of 97 tropical dry forest tree species from four sites to investigate whether patterns of trait variation varied consistently in relation to leaf habit along the ‘slow-safe vs fast-risky’ trade-off. Leaf habit explained from 0% to 43.69% of individual trait variation. We found that evergreen and semi-deciduous species differed in their location along the multivariate trait ordination when compared to deciduous species. While deciduous species showed consistent trait values, evergreen species trait values varied as a function of the site. Last, trait values varied in relation to the proportion of deciduous species in the plant community. Here We found that leaf habit describes the strategies that define drought avoidance and plant economics in tropical trees. However, leaf habit alone does not explain patterns of trait variation, which suggests quantifying site-specific or species-specific uncertainty in trait variation as the way forward.
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
Tropical dry forest response to nutrient fertilization: a model validation and sensitivity analysis
Abstract. Soil nutrients, especially nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), regulate plant growth and hence influence carbon fluxes between the land surface and atmosphere. However, how forests adjust biomass partitioning to leaves, wood, and fine roots in response to N and/or P fertilization remains puzzling. Recent work in tropical forests suggests that trees increase fine root production under P fertilization, but it is unclear whether mechanistic models can reproduce this dynamic. In order to better understand mechanisms governing nutrient effects on plant allocation and improve models, we used the nutrient-enabled ED2 model to simulate a fertilization experiment being conducted in a secondary tropical dry forest in Costa Rica. We evaluated how different allocation parameterizations affected model performance. These parameterizations prescribed a linear relationship between relative allocation to fine roots and soil P concentrations. The slope of the linear relationship was allowed to be positive, negative, or zero. Some parameterizations realistically simulated leaf, wood, and fine root production, and these parameterizations all assumed a positive relationship between relative allocation to fine roots and soil P concentration. Model simulations of a 30-year timeframe indicated strong sensitivity to parameterization and fertilization treatment. Without P fertilization, the simulated aboveground biomass (AGB) accumulation was insensitive to the parameterization. With P fertilization, the model was highly sensitive to the parameterization and the greatest AGB accumulation occurred when relative allocation to fine roots was independent of soil P. Our study demonstrates the need for simultaneous measurements of leaf, wood, and fine root production in nutrient fertilization experiments and for longer-term experiments. Models that do not accurately represent allocation to fine roots may be highly biased in their simulations of AGB, especially on multi-decadal timescales.
Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗
Altered climate leads to positive density‐dependent feedbacks in a tropical wet forest
Abstract Climate change is predicted to result in warmer and drier Neotropical forests relative to current conditions. Negative density‐dependent feedbacks, mediated by natural enemies, are key to maintaining the high diversity of tree species found in the tropics, yet we have little understanding of how projected changes in climate are likely to affect these critical controls. Over 3 years, we evaluated the effects of a natural drought and in situ experimental warming on density‐dependent feedbacks on seedling demography in a wet tropical forest in Puerto Rico. In the +4°C warming treatment, we found that seedling survival increased with increasing density of the same species (conspecific). These positive density‐dependent feedbacks were not associated with a decrease in aboveground natural enemy pressure. If positive density‐dependent feedbacks are not transient, the diversity of tropical wet forests, which may rely on negative density dependence to drive diversity, could decline in a future warmer, drier world.
Bachelot, Benedicte↗
Throughfall exclusion and fertilization effects on tropical dry forest tree plantations, a large-scale experiment
Abstract. Across tropical ecosystems, global environmental change is causing drier climatic conditions and increased nutrient deposition. Such changes represent large uncertainties due to unknown interactions between drought and nutrient availability in controlling ecosystem net primary productivity (NPP). Using a large-scale manipulative experiment, we studied for 4 years whether nutrient availability affects the individual and integrated responses of aboveground and belowground ecosystem processes to throughfall exclusion in 30-year-old mixed plantations of tropical dry forest tree species in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We used a factorial design with four treatments: control, fertilization (F), drought (D), and drought + fertilization (D + F). While we found that a 13 %–15 % reduction in soil moisture only led to weak effects in the studied ecosystem processes, NPP increased as a function of F and D + F. The relative contribution of each biomass flux to NPP varied depending on the treatment, with woody biomass being more important for F and root biomass for D + F and D. Moreover, the F treatment showed modest increases in maximum canopy cover. Plant functional type (i.e., N fixation or deciduousness) and not the experimental manipulations was the main source of variation in tree growth. Belowground processes also responded to experimental treatments, as we found a decrease in nodulation for F plots and an increase in microbial carbon use efficiency for F and D plots. Our results emphasize that nutrient availability, more so than modest reductions in soil moisture, limits ecosystem processes in tropical dry forests and that soil fertility interactions with other aspects of drought intensity (e.g., vapor pressure deficit) are yet to be explored.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Diazotrophs Show Signs of Restoration in Amazon Rain Forest Soils with Ecosystem Rehabilitation
Biological nitrogen fixation can be an important source of nitrogen in tropical forests that serve as a major CO 2 sink. Extensive deforestation of the Amazon is known to influence microbial communities and the biogeochemical cycles they mediate. However, it is unknown how diazotrophs (nitrogen-fixing microorganisms) respond to deforestation and subsequent ecosystem conversion to agriculture, as well as whether they can recover in secondary forests that are established after agriculture is abandoned. To address these knowledge gaps, here we combined a spatially explicit sampling approach with high-throughput sequencing of nifH genes. The main objectives were to assess the functional distance decay relationship of the diazotrophic bacterial community in a tropical forest ecosystem and to quantify the roles of various factors that drive the observed changes in the diazotrophic community structure. We observed an increase in local diazotrophic diversity (α-diversity) with a decrease in community turnover (β-diversity), associated with a shift in diazotrophic community structure as a result of the forest-to-pasture conversion. Both diazotrophic community turnover and structure showed signs of recovery in secondary forests. Changes in the diazotrophic community were primarily driven by the change in land use rather than differences in geochemical characteristics or geographic distances. The diazotroph communities in secondary forests resembled those in primary forests, suggesting that at least partial recovery of diazotrophs is possible following agricultural abandonment. IMPORTANCE The Amazon region is a major tropical forest region that is being deforested at an alarming rate to create space for cattle ranching and agriculture. Diazotrophs (nitrogen-fixing microorganisms) play an important role in supplying soil N for plant growth in tropical forests. It is unknown how diazotrophs respond to deforestation and whether they can recover in secondary forests that establish after agriculture is abandoned. Using high-throughput sequencing of nifH genes, we characterized the response of diazotrophs’ β-diversity and identified major drivers of changes in diazotrophs from forest-to-pasture and pasture-to-secondary-forest conversions. Studying the impact of land use change on diazotrophs is important for a better understanding of the impact of deforestation on tropical forest ecosystem functioning, and our results on the potential recovery of diazotrophs in secondary forests imply the possible restoration of ecosystem functions in secondary forests.
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗