Soil geochemistry – and not topography – as a major driver of carbon allocation, stocks, and dynamics in forests and soils of African tropical montane ecosystems
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Medientyp:
E-Artikel
Titel:
Soil geochemistry – and not topography – as a major driver of carbon allocation, stocks, and dynamics in forests and soils of African tropical montane ecosystems
Erschienen in:
New Phytologist, 236 (2022) 5, Seite 1676-1690
Sprache:
Englisch
DOI:
10.1111/nph.18469
ISSN:
0028-646X;
1469-8137
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
SummaryThe lack of field‐based data in the tropics limits our mechanistic understanding of the drivers of net primary productivity (NPP) and allocation. Specifically, the role of local edaphic factors – such as soil parent material and topography controlling soil fertility as well as water and nutrient fluxes – remains unclear and introduces substantial uncertainty in understanding net ecosystem productivity and carbon (C) stocks.Using a combination of vegetation growth monitoring and soil geochemical properties, we found that soil fertility parameters reflecting the local parent material are the main drivers of NPP and C allocation patterns in tropical montane forests, resulting in significant differences in below‐ to aboveground biomass components across geochemical (soil) regions.Topography did not constrain the variability in C allocation and NPP. Soil organic C stocks showed no relation to C input in tropical forests. Instead, plant C input seemingly exceeded the maximum potential of these soils to stabilize C.We conclude that, even after many millennia of weathering and the presence of deeply developed soils, above‐ and belowground C allocation in tropical forests, as well as soil C stocks, vary substantially due to the geochemical properties that soils inherit from parent material.