Tropical forest composition and function across space and time: Insights from diverse gradients in Área de Conservación Guanacaste

Hulshof, Catherine M.; Powers, Jennifer S.

doi:10.1111/btp.12689

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Our understanding of belowground nutrient cycling in TDF is further complicated by cross‐scale interactions among these drivers. For instance, a regional climate envelope may encompass landscape‐scale geological gradients of soil parent materials with different elemental composition and patterns of weathering (Hulshof and Powers 2019). In turn, these edaphic gradients may select for plant communities with distinct taxonomic composition and therefore different functional traits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil biogeochemistry across Central and South American tropical dry forests

Waring

Guzman

et al. 2021

Ecological Monographs

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The availability of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) controls the flow of carbon (C) among plants, soils, and the atmosphere, thereby shaping terrestrial ecosystem responses to global change. Soil C, N, and P cycles are linked by drivers operating at multiple spatial and temporal scales: landscape‐level variation in macroclimate and soil geochemistry, stand‐scale heterogeneity in forest composition, and microbial community dynamics at the soil pore scale. Yet in many biomes, we do not know at which scales most of the biogeochemical variation emerges, nor which processes drive cross‐scale feedbacks. Here, we examined the drivers and spatial/temporal scales of variation in soil biogeochemistry across four tropical dry forests spanning steep environmental gradients. To do so, we quantified soil C, N, and P pools, extracellular enzyme activities, and microbial community structure across wet and dry seasons in 16 plots located in Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Soil biogeochemistry exhibited marked heterogeneity across the 16 plots, with total organic C, N, and P pools varying fourfold, and inorganic nutrient pools by an order of magnitude. Most soil characteristics changed more across space (i.e., among sites and plots) than over time (between dry and wet season samplings). We observed stoichiometric decoupling among C, N, and P cycles, which may reflect their divergent biogeochemical drivers. Organic C and N pool sizes were positively correlated with the relative abundance of ectomycorrhizal trees and legumes. By contrast, the distribution of soil P pools was driven by soil geochemistry, with larger inorganic P pools in soils with P‐rich parent material. Most earth system models assume that soils within a texture class operate similarly, and ignore subgrid cell variation in soil properties. Here we reveal that soil nutrient pools and fluxes exhibit as much variation among four Neotropical dry forests as is observed across terrestrial ecosystems at the global scale. Soil biogeochemical patterns are driven not only by regional differences in soil parent material and climate, but also by local‐scale variation in plant and microbial communities. Thus, the biogeochemical patterns we observed across the Neotropical dry forest biome challenge representation of soil processes in ecosystem models.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil biogeochemistry across Central and South American tropical dry forests

Waring

Guzman

et al. 2021

Ecological Monographs

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“…Cloud forests are characterized by consistently low temperatures and high precipitation/humidity and tend to be inhabited by species that exhibit multiple adaptations related to abiotic conditions that are stressful for the generally thermophilic ants (Bruijnzeel & Proctor, 1995; Gentry, 1992; Still et al., 1999). Climate change is expected to cause dramatic biotic transformations in cloud forest (Hulshof & Powers, 2020; Nadkarni & Solano, 2002; Pounds et al., 1999) and surveys of cloud forest species over time aid our understanding of these changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional and genetic diversity changes through time in a cloud forest ant assemblage

et al. 2020

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Cloud forests are characterized by consistently low temperatures and high precipitation/humidity and tend to be inhabited by species that exhibit multiple adaptations related to abiotic conditions that are stressful for the generally thermophilic ants (Bruijnzeel & Proctor, 1995; Gentry, 1992; Still et al., 1999). Climate change is expected to cause dramatic biotic transformations in cloud forest (Hulshof & Powers, 2020; Nadkarni & Solano, 2002; Pounds et al., 1999) and surveys of cloud forest species over time aid our understanding of these changes. We sampled ant communities from a cloud forest at the top of 1,500 m tall Volcán Cacao within Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica (10.9329, −85.4530). This single location is part of an ongoing inventory project examining elevational and temporal structure of ants and other leaf-litter arthropods

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“…Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) is a protected area in northwestern Costa Rica that contains three stratovolcanoes (Janzen & Hallwachs, 2020). Temperature and precipitation change dramatically across the elevation of these volcanoes resulting in three distinct forest types (low elevation dry forest, mid‐elevation rain forests, and high elevation cloud forests) (Janzen & Hallwachs, 2016; Hulshof & Powers, 2019). In the dry forest, temperature can spike to greater than 40°C with months between rainfalls in the dry season, while in the rainy season, temperatures can be reliably 20°C cooler with torrential rains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spider diversity across an elevation gradient in Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG), Costa Rica

et al. 2020

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Tropical forest composition and function across space and time: Insights from diverse gradients in Área de Conservación Guanacaste

Abstract: This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

Cited by 13 publications

References 100 publications

Soil biogeochemistry across Central and South American tropical dry forests

Soil biogeochemistry across Central and South American tropical dry forests

Functional and genetic diversity changes through time in a cloud forest ant assemblage

Spider diversity across an elevation gradient in Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG), Costa Rica

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