Edaphic Factors are a More Important Control on Surface Fine Roots than Stand Age in Secondary Tropical Dry Forests

• Published in: Biotropica 2013-01, Vol.45 (1), p.1-9
• Main Authors: Powers, Jennifer S., Peréz-Aviles, Daniel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; belowground biomass; Biological and medical sciences; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Costa Rica; Dry forests; Forest regeneration; Forest soils; Forestry; Forests; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; General forest ecology; Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology; Old growth forests; Plant roots; secondary succession; Soil fertility; soil nutrients; Soils; Species; Stand age; Tropical Biology; Tropical forests; Tropical soils
• ISSN: 0006-3606; 1744-7429
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2012.00881.x

Although there are generalized conceptual models that predict how above and belowground biomass increase during secondary succession after abandonment from agriculture, there are few data to test these models for fine roots (defined as ≤2 mm diameter) in tropical forests. We measured live and dead fine roots (0—10 cm depth) in 18 plots of regenerating tropical dry forest in Costa Rica that varied in age from 5 to 60 yrs, as well as in soil properties. We predicted that both stand age and soil fertility would affect fine roots, with greater values in older forests on low fertility soils. Across two sampling dates and locations, live fine roots varied from 0.35 to 3.53 Mg/ha and dead roots varied from 0.15 to 0.93 Mg/ha. Surprisingly, there was little evidence that surface fine roots varied between sampling dates or in relation to stand age. By contrast, total, live, and dead fine roots averaged across sampling dates within plots were negatively correlated with a multivariate index of soil fertility (Pearson correlations coefficients were -0.64, -0.58, and -0.68, respectively; P < 0.01) and other individual edaphic variables including pH, silt, calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, and phosphorus. These results suggest that soil fertility is a more important determinant of fine roots than forest age in tropical dry forests in Costa Rica, and that one-way these plant communities respond to low soil fertility is by increasing fine roots. Thus, simple conceptual models of forest responses to abandonment from agriculture may not be appropriate for surface fine roots.