Environmental filtering of dense‐wooded species controls above‐ground biomass stored in African moist forests
Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury,Vivien Rossi,Maxime Réjou-Méchain,Vincent Freycon,Adeline Fayolle,Laurent Saint-André,Laurent Saint-André,Guillaume Cornu,Jean Gérard,Jean-Michel Sarrailh,Olivier Flores,Fidèle Baya,Alain Billand,Nicolas Fauvet,Michel Gally,Matieu Henry,Matieu Henry,Matieu Henry,Didier Hubert,Alexandra Pasquier,Nicolas Picard +20 more
TLDR
In this paper, the relationship between above-ground biomass and soil type in undisturbed moist forests in the Central African Republic was investigated, and the effects of soil texture, as a surrogate for soil resources availability and physical constraints (soil depth and hydromorphy) on biomass was tested.Abstract:
Summary 1. Regional above-ground biomass estimates for tropical moist forests remain highly inaccurate mostly because they are based on extrapolations from a few plots scattered across a limited range of soils and other environmental conditions. When such conditions impact biomass, the estimation is biased. The effect of soil types on biomass has especially yielded controversial results. 2. We investigated the relationship between above-ground biomass and soil type in undisturbed moist forests in the Central African Republic. We tested the effects of soil texture, as a surrogate for soil resources availability and physical constraints (soil depth and hydromorphy) on biomass. Forest inventory data were collected for trees ‡20 cm stem diameter in 2754 0.5 ha plots scattered over 4888 km 2 . The plots contained 224 taxons, of which 209 were identified to species. Soil types were characterized from a 1:1 000 000 scale soil map. Species-specific values for wood density were extracted from the CIRAD’s data base of wood technological properties. 3. We found that basal area and biomass differ in their responses to soil type, ranging from 17.8 m 2 ha )1 (217.5 t ha )1 )t o 22.3 m 2 ha )1 (273.3 t ha )1 ). While shallow and hydromorphic soils support forests with both low stem basal area and low biomass, forests on deep resource-poor soils are typically low in basal area but as high in biomass as forests on deep resource-rich soils. We demonstrated that the environmental filtering of slow growing dense-wooded species on resource-poor soils compensates for the low basal area, and we discuss whether this filtering effect is due to low fertility or to low water reserve. 4. Synthesis. We showed that soil physical conditions constrained the amount of biomass stored in tropical moist forests. Contrary to previous reports, our results suggest that biomass is similar on resource-poor and resource-rich soils. This finding highlights both the importance of taking into account soil characteristics and species wood density when trying to predict regional patterns of biomass. Our findings have implications for the evaluation of biomass stocks in tropical forests, in the context of the international negotiations on climate change.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Retention Forestry to Maintain Multifunctional Forests: A World Perspective
Lena Gustafsson,Susan C. Baker,Jürgen Bauhus,William J. Beese,Angus Brodie,Jari Kouki,David B. Lindenmayer,Asko Lõhmus,Guillermo Martínez Pastur,Christian Messier,Mark G. Neyland,Brian J. Palik,Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson,W. Jan A. Volney,Adrian F. Wayne,Jeffrey F. Franklin +15 more
TL;DR: Retention forestry is applicable to all forest biomes, complements conservation in reserves, and represents bottom-up conservation through forest manager involvement and link retention forestry with land-zoning allocation at various scales, expanding its uses to forest restoration and the management of uneven—age forests.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition
Georges Kunstler,Georges Kunstler,Daniel S. Falster,David A. Coomes,Francis K. C. Hui,Robert M. Kooyman,Robert M. Kooyman,Daniel C. Laughlin,Lourens Poorter,Mark C. Vanderwel,Ghislain Vieilledent,S. Joseph Wright,Masahiro Aiba,Christopher Baraloto,Christopher Baraloto,John P. Caspersen,J. Hans C. Cornelissen,Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury,Marc Hanewinkel,Bruno Hérault,Jens Kattge,Hiroko Kurokawa,Yusuke Onoda,Josep Peñuelas,Hendrik Poorter,María Uriarte,Sarah J. Richardson,Paloma Ruiz-Benito,Paloma Ruiz-Benito,I-Fang Sun,Göran Ståhl,Nathan G. Swenson,Jill Thompson,Bertil Westerlund,Christian Wirth,Miguel A. Zavala,Hongcheng Zeng,Jess K. Zimmerman,Niklaus E. Zimmermann,Mark Westoby +39 more
TL;DR: Traits generate trade-offs between performance with competition versus performance without competition, a fundamental ingredient in the classical hypothesis that the coexistence of plant species is enabled via differentiation in their successional strategies.
Journal ArticleDOI
Root traits are multidimensional: specific root length is independent from root tissue density and the plant economic spectrum
Kris R. Kramer-Walter,Peter J. Bellingham,Timothy R. Millar,Rob D. Smissen,Sarah J. Richardson,Daniel C. Laughlin +5 more
TL;DR: Test the prediction that root, stem and leaf traits and relative growth rate respond in unison with soil fertility gradients and determine whether multiple root traits align with growth rate, leaf and stem traits and with each other.
Journal ArticleDOI
Above-ground biomass and structure of 260 African tropical forests.
Simon L. Lewis,Simon L. Lewis,Bonaventure Sonké,Terry Sunderland,Serge K. Begne,Serge K. Begne,Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez,Geertje M. F. van der Heijden,Geertje M. F. van der Heijden,Oliver L. Phillips,Kofi Affum-Baffoe,Timothy R. Baker,Lindsay F. Banin,Jean-François Bastin,Jean-François Bastin,Jean-François Bastin,Hans Beeckman,Pascal Boeckx,Jan Bogaert,Charles De Cannière,Eric Chezeaux,Connie J. Clark,Murray Collins,Gloria Djagbletey,Marie Noël Kamdem Djuikouo,Vincent Droissart,Jean-Louis Doucet,Cornielle E N Ewango,Sophie Fauset,Ted R. Feldpausch,Ernest G. Foli,Jean François Gillet,Alan Hamilton,David Harris,Terese B. Hart,Thalès de Haulleville,Thalès de Haulleville,Annette Hladik,Koen Hufkens,Dries Huygens,Dries Huygens,Philippe Jeanmart,Kathryn J. Jeffery,Elizabeth Kearsley,Elizabeth Kearsley,Miguel E. Leal,Jon Lloyd,Jon Lloyd,Jon C. Lovett,Jean-Remy Makana,Yadvinder Malhi,Andrew R. Marshall,Lucas Ojo,Kelvin S.-H. Peh,Kelvin S.-H. Peh,Georgia Pickavance,John R. Poulsen,Jan Reitsma,Douglas Sheil,Douglas Sheil,Murielle Simo,Kathy Steppe,Hermann Taedoumg,Joey Talbot,James Taplin,David Taylor,Sean C. Thomas,Benjamin Toirambe,Hans Verbeeck,Jason Vleminckx,Lee J. T. White,Simon Willcock,Simon Willcock,Hannsjorg Woell,Lise Zemagho +74 more
TL;DR: The results indicate that AGB is mediated by both climate and soils, and suggest that the AGB of African closed-canopy tropical forests may be particularly sensitive to future precipitation and temperature changes.
References
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World Reference Base for Soil Resources
TL;DR: The World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) as mentioned in this paper is a reference base for soil resources developed by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) for soil correlation.
Journal ArticleDOI
An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II
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Evidence for the existence of three primary strategies in plants and its relevance to ecological and evolutionary theory
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TL;DR: The nature of crop responses to nutrient stress is reviewed and compares these responses to those of species that have evolved under more natural conditions, particularly in low-nutrient envi ronments.
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