Data from: What Controls Variation in Carbon Use Efficiency Among Amazonian Tropical Forests?
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Description
Why do some forests produce biomass more efficiently than others? Variations in Carbon Use Efficiency (CUE: total Net Primary Production (NPP)/ Gross Primary Production (GPP)) may be due to changes in wood residence time (Biomass/NPPwood), temperature, or soil nutrient status. We tested these hypotheses in 14, one ha plots across Amazonian and Andean forests where we measured most key components of net primary production (NPP: wood, fine roots, and leaves) and autotrophic respiration (Ra; wood, rhizosphere, and leaf respiration). We found that lower fertility sites were less efficient at producing biomass and had higher rhizosphere respiration, indicating increased carbon allocation to belowground components. We then compared wood respiration to wood growth and rhizosphere respiration to fine root growth and found that forests with residence times 40 yrs. A comparison of rhizosphere respiration to fine root growth showed that rhizosphere growth respiration was significantly greater at low fertility sites. Overall, we found that Amazonian forests produce biomass less efficiently in stands with residence times >40 yrs and in stands with lower fertility, but changes to long-term mean annual temperatures do not impact CUE.
Publication Date
9-6-2017
Keywords
CUE, GPP, NPP
Disciplines
Climate | Environmental Chemistry | Forest Biology
Recommended Citation
Doughty, Christopher E. et al. (2017), Data from: What controls variation in carbon use efficiency among Amazonian tropical forests?, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2hv6c
Copyright
This work is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license.
Comments
Biotropica_Doughty__data
Monthly carbon cycling data (total NPP and autotrophic respiration) for all plots mentioned in the paper. Mean plot characteristics such as soil chemistry, texture, temperature, and precipitation also listed.