Ecosystem respiration and net primary productivity after 8-10 years of experimental through-fall reduction in an eastern Amazon forest

Abstract

Background: There is much interest in how the Amazon rainforest may respond to future rainfall reduction. However, there are relatively few ecosystem-scale studies to inform this debate.Aims: We described the carbon cycle in a 1 ha rainforest plot subjected to 8-10 consecutive years of ca. 50% through-fall reduction (TFR) and compare these results with those from a nearby, unmodified control plot in eastern Amazonia.Methods: We quantified the components of net primary productivity (NPP), autotrophic (R-a) and heterotrophic respiration, and estimate gross primary productivity (GPP, the sum of NPP and R-a) and carbon-use efficiency (CUE, the ratio of NPP/GPP).Results: The TFR forest exhibited slightly lower NPP but slightly higher R-a, such that forest CUE was 0.29 +/- 0.04 on the control plot but 0.25 +/- 0.03 on the TFR plot. Compared with four years earlier, TFR plot leaf area index and small tree growth recovered and soil heterotrophic respiration had risen.Conclusions: This analysis tested and extended the key findings of a similar analysis 4 years earlier in the TFR treatment. The results indicated that, while the forest recovered from extended drought in some respects, it maintained higher overall R-a relative to the undroughted control, potentially causing the droughted forest to act as a net source of CO2.

Keywords

drought; carbon cycling; Caxiuana National Forest Reserve; climate change; tropical rainforest; biomass allocation; CUE; GPP; NPP; PCE

Published in

Plant Ecology and Diversity
2014, Volume: 7, number: 1-2, pages: 7-24

SLU Authors

• Metcalfe, Daniel

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17550874.2013.798366

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/51751