Increasing calcium scarcity along Afrotropical forest succession.
Nat Ecol Evol
; 6(8): 1122-1131, 2022 08.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35788708
ABSTRACT
Secondary forests constitute an increasingly important component of tropical forests worldwide. Although cycling of essential nutrients affects recovery trajectories of secondary forests, the effect of nutrient limitation on forest regrowth is poorly constrained. Here we use three lines of evidence from secondary forest succession sequences in central Africa to identify potential nutrient limitation in regrowing forests. First, we show that atmospheric phosphorus supply exceeds demand along forest succession, whereas forests rely on soil stocks to meet their base cation demands. Second, soil nutrient metrics indicate that available phosphorus increases along the succession, whereas available cations decrease. Finally, fine root, foliar and litter stoichiometry show that tissue calcium concentrations decline relative to those of nitrogen and phosphorus during succession. Taken together, these observations suggest that calcium becomes an increasingly scarce resource in central African forests during secondary succession. Furthermore, ecosystem calcium storage shifts from soil to woody biomass over succession, making it a vulnerable nutrient in the wake of land-use change scenarios that involve woody biomass export. Our results thus call for a broadened focus on elements other than nitrogen and phosphorus regarding tropical forest biogeochemical cycles and identify calcium as a scarce and potentially limiting nutrient in an increasingly disturbed and dynamic tropical forest landscape.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Cálcio
/
Ecossistema
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Nat Ecol Evol
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Bélgica