Elevation effects on the carbon budget of tropical mountain forests (S Ecuador): The role of the belowground compartment

Global Change Biology

Volumn 17, Issue 6, 2011, Pages 2211-2226

  Moser, Gerald ^a,b   Leuschner, Christoph ^a   Hertel, Dietrich ^a   Graefe, Sophie ^a,c   Soethe, Nathalie ^d   Iost, Susanne ^e  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN   (Germany)

^b JUSTUS LIEBIG UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

^c INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE CIAT   (Colombia)

^d UNIVERSITY OF GREIFSWALD   (Germany)

^e THÜNEN INSTITUTE OF CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE   (Germany)

Author keywords

Aboveground biomass; Belowground biomass; Fine root production; Net primary production; Root shoot ratio; SOC; Tropical montane forest; Wood increment

Indexed keywords

BELOWGROUND PRODUCTION; CARBON SEQUESTRATION; CARBON SINK; MONTANE FOREST; NET PRIMARY PRODUCTION; ROOT-SHOOT RATIO; SOIL ORGANIC MATTER;

ANDES; ECUADOR;

EID: 79955020749     PISSN: 13541013     EISSN: 13652486     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02367.x     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. Aiba S, Kitayama K (1999) Structure, composition and species diversity in an altitude-substrate matrix of rain forest tree communities on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo. Plant Ecology, 140, 139-157.
2. Balslev H, Øllgaard B (2002) Mapa de vegetación del sur de Ecuador. In: Botánica Austroecuatoriana - Estudios sobre los recursos vegetales en las provincias de el Oro, Loja y Zamora-Chinchipe (eds Aguirre ZM, Madsen JE, Cotton E, Balslev H), pp. 51-64. Ediciones ABYA YALA, Quito.
3. Batjes NH, Dijkshoorn JA (1999) Carbon and nitrogen stocks in the soils of the Amazon region. Geoderma, 89, 273-286.
4. Bloom AJ, Chapin III FS, Mooney HA (1985) Resource limitation in plants - an economic analogy. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 16, 363-392.
5. Brown S (1997) Estimating biomass and biomass change of tropical forests: a primer. FAO Forestry Paper, 134pp.
6. Bruijnzeel LA, Veneklaas EJ (1998) Climatic conditions and tropical montane forest productivity: the fog has not lifted yet. Ecology, 79, 3-9.
7. Chave J, Andalo C, Brown S et al. (2005) Tree allometry and improved estimation of carbon stocks and balance in tropical forests. Oecologia, 145, 87-99.
8. Clark DA (2007) Detecting tropical forests' responses to global climatic and atmospheric change: current challenges and a way forward. Biotropica, 39, 4-19.
9. Clark DA, Brown S, Kicklighter DW, Chambers JQ, Thomlinson JR, Ni J (2001a) Measuring net primary production in forests: concepts and field methods. Ecological Applications, 11, 356-370.
10. Clark DA, Brown S, Kicklighter DW, Chambers JQ, Thomlinson JR, Ni J, Holland EA (2001b) Net primary production in tropical forests: an evaluation and synthesis of existing field data. Ecological Applications, 11, 371-384.
11. Clark DA, Piper SC, Keeling CD, Clark DB (2003) Tropical rain forest tree growth and atmospheric carbon dynamics linked to interannual temperature variation during 1984-2000. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100, 5852-5857.
12. Culmsee H, Leuschner Ch, Moser G, Pitopang R (2010) Forest aboveground biomass along an altitudinal transect in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the role of extra-tropical Fagaceae. Journal of Biogeography, 37, 960-974.
13. Duivenvoorden JF, Lips JM (1995) A land-ecological study of soils, vegetation, and plant diversity in Colombian Amazonia. The Tropenbos Foundation. Wageningen. Tropenbos Series, 12, 1-437.
14. Eissenstat DM, Wells CE, Yanai RD, Whitbeck JL (2000) Building roots in a changing environment: implications for root longevity. New Phytologist, 147, 33-42.
15. Eissenstat DM, Yanai RD (1997) The ecology of root lifespan. Advances in Ecological Research, 27, 1-60.
16. Espeleta K-F, Clark DA (2007) Multi-scale variation in fine-root biomass in a tropical rain forest: a seven year study. Ecological Monographs, 77, 377-404.
17. Feeley KJ, Wright SJ, Nur Supardi MN, Kassim AR, Davies SJ (2007) Decelerating growth in tropical forest trees. Ecology Letters, 10, 461-469.
18. Finér L, Ohashi M, Noguchi K, Hirano Y (2011) Factors causing variation in fine root biomass in forest ecosystems. Forest Ecology and Management, 261, 265-277.
19. Girardin CAJ, Malhi Y, Aragao LEOC et al. (2010) Net primary production and its allocation along a tropical forest elevational transect in the Peruvian Andes. Global Change Biology, 16, 3176-3192.
20. Grace J, Lloyd J, McIntyre J et al. (1995) Carbon dioxide uptake by an undisturbed tropical rain forest in South-West Amazonia 1992-1993. Science, 270, 778-780.
21. Grace J, Meir P (2009) Tropical rain forests as old-growth forests. In: Old-Growth Forests (eds Wirth C, Gleixner G, Heimann M), pp. 391-408. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Ecological Studies, 207.
22. Graefe S, Hertel D, Leuschner Ch (2008a) Fine root dynamics along a 2, 000-m elevation transect in South Ecuadorian mountain forests. Plant and Soil, 231, 155-166.
23. Graefe S, Hertel D, Leuschner Ch (2008b) Estimating fine root turnover in tropical forests along an elevational transect using minirhizotrons. Biotropica, 40, 536-542.
24. Grubb PJ (1977) Control of forest growth and distribution on wet tropical mountains with special reference to mineral nutrition. Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics, 8, 567-601.
25. Grubb PJ, Lloyd JR, Pennington TD, Whitmore TC (1963) A comparison of montane and lowland rain forest in Ecuador. I. The forest structure, physiognomy and floristics. Journal of Ecology, 51, 567-601.
26. Grubb PJ, Tanner EVJ (1976) The montane forests and soils of Jamaica: a reassessment. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, 57, 33-68.
27. Hertel D, Leuschner Ch (2010) Fine root mass and fine root production in tropical moist forests as dependent on soil, climate and elevation. In: Mountains in the Mist: Science for Conserving and Managing Tropical Montane Cloud Forests (eds Bruijnzeel LA, Scatena FH, Hamilton LS), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, in press.
28. Herbert DA, Fownes JH (1999) Forest productivity and efficiency of resource use across a chronosequence of tropical montane soils. Ecosystems, 2, 242-254.
29. Hölscher D, Köhler L, Kapelle M, Leuschner Ch (in press) Ecology and use of old-growth and recovering montane oak forest in the Cordillera de Talamanca, Costa Rica. In: Mountains in the mist: Science for conserving and managing tropical montane cloud forests (eds Bruijnzeel LA, Scatena FH, Hamilton LS), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
30. Houghton RA, Lawrence KT, Hackler JL et al. (2001) The spatial distribution of forest biomass in the Brazilian Amazon. Global Change Biology, 7, 731-746.
31. Iost S (2007) Soil respiration, microbial respiration and mineralisation in soils of montane rainforests of Southern Ecuador: influence of altitude. PhD thesis, Technical University of Dresden, Germany, 171 pp. Available at: (accessed 1 July 2010).
32. Iost S, Makeschin F, Abiy M, Haubrich F (2008) Biotic soil activity. In: Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador (eds Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R), pp. 217-227. Springer, Berlin. Ecological Studies, 198.
33. Jackson RB, Canadell J, Ehleringer JR, Mooney HA, Sala OE, Schulze ED (1996) A global analysis of root distribution for terrestrial biomes. Oecologia, 108, 389-411.
34. Kitayama K, Aiba S-I (2002) Ecosystem structure and productivity of tropical rain forests along altitudinal gradients with contrasting soil phosphorus pools on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo. Journal of Ecology, 90, 37-51.
35. Körner C, Paulsen J (2004) A world-wide study of high altitude treeline temperatures. Journal of Biogeography, 31, 713-732.
36. Leuschner Ch, Hertel D, Coners H, Büttner V (2001) Root competition between beech and oak: a hypothesis. Oecologia, 126, 276-284.
37. Leuschner Ch, Moser G, Bertsch C, Röderstein M, Hertel D (2007) Large altitudinal increase in tree root/shoot ratio in tropical mountain forests of Ecuador. Basic and Applied Ecology, 8, 219-230.
38. Lieberman D, Lieberman M, Peralta R, Hartshorn GS (1996) Tropical forest structure and composition on a large-scale altitudinal gradient in Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology, 84, 137-152.
39. Litherland M, Aspden J, Jemielita R (1994) The metamorphic belts of Ecuador. No. 11 in Overseas Memoir of the British Geological Survey. British Geology Survey, Keyworth, UK.
40. Da Costa ACL, Galbraith D, Almeida S et al. (2010) Effect of 7 yr of experimental drought on vegetation dynamics and biomass storage of an eastern Amazonian rainforest. New Phytologist, 187, 579-591.
41. 2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database. Global Change Biology, 13, 2509-2537.
42. Malhi Y, Wood D, Baker TR et al. (2006) The regional variation of aboveground live biomass in old-growth Amazonian forests. Global Change Biology, 12, 1107-1138.
43. Metcalfe D, Meir P, Williams M (2008) The effects of water availability on root growth and morphology in an Amazon rainforest. Plant and Soil, 311, 189-199.
44. Moser G, Hertel D, Leuschner Ch (2007) Altitudinal change in LAI and stand leaf biomass in tropical montane forests - a transect study in Ecuador and a pan-tropical meta-analysis. Ecosystems, 10, 924-935.
45. Moser G, Leuschner Ch, Röderstein M, Graefe S, Soethe N, Hertel D (2010) Biomass and productivity of fine and coarse roots in five tropical mountain forests along an altitudinal transect in South Ecuador. Plant Ecology and Diversity, 3, 151-164.
46. Moser G, Röderstein M, Soethe N, Hertel D, Leuschner Ch (2008) Altitudinal changes in stand structure and biomass allocation of tropical mountain forests in relation to microclimate and soil chemistry. In: Gradients in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of Ecuador (eds Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R), pp. 229-242. Springer, Berlin, Ecological Studies, 198.
47. Nadelhoffer KJ (2000) The potential effects of nitrogen deposition on fine-root production in forest ecosystems. New Phytologist, 147, 131-139.
48. Pollmann W, Hildebrand R (2005) Structure and the composition of species in timberline ecotones of the Southern Andes. In: Mountain ecosystems - studies in treeline ecology (eds Broll G, Keplin B), pp. 117-151. Springer, Berlin.
49. Raich JW, Russel AE, Vitousek PM (1997) Primary productivity and ecosystem development along an elevational gradient on Mauna Loa, Hawai'i. Ecology, 78, 707-721.
50. Schawe M, Glatzel S, Gerold G (2007) Soil development along an altitudinal transect in a Bolivian tropical montane rainforest: Podzolization vs. hydromorphy. Catena, 69, 83-90.
51. Shi P, Körner C, Hoch G (2008) A test of the growth-limitation theory for alpine tree line formation in evergreen and deciduous taxa of the eastern Himalayas. Functional Ecology, 22, 213-220.
52. Soethe N, Lehmann J, Engels C (2006a) Root morphology and anchorage of six native tree species from a tropical montane forest and an elfin forest in Ecuador. Plant and Soil, 279, 173-185.
53. Soethe N, Lehmann J, Engels C (2006b) The vertical pattern of rooting and nutrient uptake at different altitudes of a south Ecuadorian montane forest. Plant and Soil, 286, 287-299.
54. Takyu M, Aiba S-I, Kitayama K (2003) Changes in biomass, productivity and decomposition along topographical gradients under different geological conditions in tropical lower montane forests on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo. Oecologia, 134, 397-404.
55. Tanner EVJ (1981) The decomposition of leaf litter in Jamaican montane rain forests. Journal of Ecology, 69, 263-273.
56. Vogt KA, Vogt DJ, Palmiotto PA, Boon B, O'Hara J, Asbjornsen H (1996) Review of root dynamics in forest ecosystems grouped by climate, climatic forest type and species. Plant Soil, 187, 159-219.
57. Wang HQ, Hall CAS, Scatena FN, Fetcher N, Wu W (2003) Modelling the spatial and temporal variability in climate and primary productivity across the Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico. Forest Ecology and Management, 179, 69-94.
58. Weaver PL, Murphy PG (1990) Forest structure and productivity in Puerto-Rico Luquillo Mountains. Biotropica, 22, 69-82.
59. Wilcke W, Hess T, Bengel C, Homeier J, Valarezo E, Zech W (2005) Coarse woody debris in a montane forest in Ecuador: mass, C and nutrient stock, and turnover. Forest Ecology and Management, 205, 139-147.
60. 2 efflux in a tropical mountain rain forest in southern Ecuador. Tree Physiology, 28, 67-74.