Carbon content of soil fractions varies with season, rainfall, and soil fertility across a lowland tropical moist forest gradient

Dietterich, Lee H.; Karpman, Jason; Neupane, Avishesh; Ciochina, Mark; Cusack, Daniela F.

doi:10.1007/s10533-021-00836-1

Carbon content of soil fractions varies with season, rainfall, and soil fertility across a lowland tropical moist forest gradient

Journal Article · Thu Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Biogeochemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00836-1· OSTI ID:1961167

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Ciochina, Mark ^[2]; ^[3]

Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Ecosystem Science & Sustainability, Colorado State University
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., Ancon (Panama, Republic of)

Tropical forests contain some of the largest soil carbon (C) stocks on Earth, making them broadly relevant to terrestrial-climate feedbacks, yet our understanding of how their soil organic C (SOC) fractions vary over space and time is limited. We studied effects of season, fertility, and mean annual precipitation (MAP) on the C contents of soil fractions across 14 lowland forests in Panama. We measured free-debris, occluded-debris, and mineral-associated SOC fractions, as well as soluble C associated with each fraction. We hypothesized that mineral-associated SOC would be greatest in infertile, strongly weathered soils with large reactive mineral contents. We also hypothesized that the debris SOC fractions would accumulate during the dry season, reflecting seasonal increases in litterfall. To address this, we compared soil fractions in wet and dry seasons from fertile and infertile soils across a range of 1809 – 2864 mm MAP. The C content (mg C / g soil) of all soil fractions varied with fertility and MAP: specifically, free-debris SOC was greatest in wet, high-fertility soils, and occluded-debris SOC was greater in high-fertility than low-fertility soils. The mineral-associated SOC fraction, which contained the majority of bulk soil C, showed increasing C content with greater MAP in infertile sites, presumably driving similar spatial patterns in the bulk soil. Only the free-debris SOC fraction showed strong seasonal variation, increasing in mass during the dry season. Nitrogen behaved similarly to C. In summary, soil C contents increased with MAP in infertile sites but not fertile sites, driven by the mineral-associated SOC fraction. The dry season had greater free-debris SOC, but this seasonal trend was not apparent in bulk soil C, likely because of the small size of the free-debris SOC fraction. Furthermore, changes in the quantity and seasonality of precipitation, which are projected for tropical forests, might shift spatial and temporal patterns of soil C storage, which would in turn influence forest-climate feedbacks for this C-rich biome.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0015898

OSTI ID:: 1961167

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1852035

Journal Information:: Biogeochemistry, Journal Name: Biogeochemistry Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 155; ISSN 0168-2563

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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Carbon content of soil fractions varies with season, rainfall, and soil fertility across a lowland tropical moist forest gradient

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