Abstract
Tropical forests are renowned for their biological diversity, but also harbor variable combinations of soil age, chemistry and susceptibility to erosion or tectonic uplift. Here we contend that the combined effects of this biotic and abiotic diversity promote exceptional biogeochemical heterogeneity at multiple scales. At local levels, high plant diversity creates variation in chemical and structural traits that affect plant production, decomposition and nutrient cycling. At regional levels, myriad combinations of soil age, soil chemistry and landscape dynamics create variation and uncertainty in limiting nutrients that do not exist at higher latitudes. The effects of such heterogeneity are not well captured in large-scale estimates of tropical ecosystem function, but we suggest new developments in remote sensing can help bridge the gap.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 424-431 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Trends in Ecology and Evolution |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2008 |
Funding
We thank S. Reed, W. Wieder, C. Bern, N. Ascarrunz, S. Porder, P. Vitousek, D. Knapp, T. Kennedy-Bowdoin and R. Martin for contributions to the ideas and data presented here. This work was supported by the NSF Ecosystems Program (grants DEB-0089447 and DEB-0136957), the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the NASA Terrestrial Ecology and Biodiversity Program (grant NNG-06-GI-87G). The Carnegie Airborne Observatory is supported by the W.M. Keck Foundation and William Hearst III.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DEB-0089447, DEB-0136957 | |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | NNG-06-GI-87G |