Journal article
Regional and temporal patterns of litterfall in tropical South America
- Abstract:
- The production of aboveground soft tissue represents an important share of total net primary production in tropical rain forests. Here we draw from a large number of published and unpublished datasets (n=81 sites) to assess the determinants of litterfall variation across South American tropical forests. We show that across old-growth tropical rainforests, litterfall averages 8.61±1.91 Mg/ha/yr. Secondary forests have a lower annual litterfall than old-growth tropical forests with a mean of 8.01±3.41 Mg/ha/yr. Annual littefall shows no significant variation with total annual rainfall, either globally or within forest types. It does not vary consistently with soil type, except in the poorest soils (white sand soils), where litterfall is significantly lower than in other soil types (5.42±1.91 Mg/ha/yr). Litterfall declines significantly with increasing N:P. We also study the determinants of litterfall seasonality, and find that it does not depend on annual rainfall or on soil type. However, litterfall seasonality is significantly positively correlated with rainfall seasonality. Finally, we assess how much carbon is stored in reproductive organs relative to photosynthetic organs. Mean leaf fall is 5.74±1.83 Mg/ha/ye (71% of total litterfall). Mean allocation into reproductive organs is 0.69±0.40 Mg/ha/yr (9% of total litterfall). The investment into reproductive organs divided by leaf litterfall is negatively related to the N:P ratio, suggesting that on poor soils, the allocation to photosynthetic organs is prioritized over than to reproduction. Finally, we discuss the ecological and biogeochemical implications of these results.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Reviewed (other)
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Authors
- Publisher:
- Copernicus Publications
- Journal:
- Biogeosciences Discussions More from this journal
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 7565-7597
- Publication date:
- 2009-07-01
- Edition:
- Publisher's version
- EISSN:
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1810-6285
- ISSN:
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1810-6277
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- UUID:
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uuid:eca15528-ab77-40b5-ac43-cbeca3e82210
- Local pid:
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ora:3156
- Deposit date:
-
2009-12-11
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- J Chave et al
- Copyright date:
- 2009
- Notes:
- Citation: Chave, J. et al. (2009). 'Regional and temporal patterns of litterfall in tropical South America', Biogeosciences Discussions, 6(4), 7565-7597. [Available at http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/6/7565/2009/]. © Authors 2009. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). This permits the copying, distribution, transmission and adaption of the work, provided the original authors are credited. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. These conditions may be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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