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Item type:Publication, Trade-Offs Among Aboveground, Belowground, and Soil Organic Carbon Stocks Along Altitudinal Gradients in Andean Tropical Montane Forests(Frontiers Media S.A., 2020-03-03)Tropical montane forests (TMFs) play an important role as a carbon reservoir at a global scale. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive understanding on the variation in carbon storage across TMF compartments (namely aboveground biomass [AGB], belowground biomass [BGB], and soil organic matter) along altitudinal and environmental gradients and their potential trade-offs. This study aims to: 1) understand how carbon stocks vary along altitudinal gradients in Andean TMFs, and; 2) determine the influence of climate, particularly precipitation seasonality, on the distribution of carbon stocks across different forest compartments. The study was conducted in sixty 0.1 ha plots along two altitudinal gradients at the Podocarpus National Park (Ecuador) and Río Abiseo National Park (Peru). At each plot, we calculated the amount of carbon in AGB (i.e. aboveground carbon stock, AGC), BGB (i.e. belowground carbon stock, BGC), and soil organic matter (i.e. soil organic carbon stock, SOC). The mean total carbon stock found in plots across sites was 229.02 ± 68.06 Mg ha-1. Although AGC, BGC and SOC showed different partitioning patterns along the altitudinal gradient both in Ecuador and Peru, total carbon stock did not change with altitude in either site. The mean total carbon stock found in plots across sites was 229.02 ± 68.06 Mg ha-1. The combination of annual mean temperature and precipitation seasonality explained differences in the observed patterns of carbon stocks across forest compartments between the two sites. This study suggests that the greater precipitation seasonality of colder, higher altitudes promotes faster turnover rates of organic matter and nutrients and, consequently, less accumulation of SOC but greater AGC and BGC, compared to those sites with lesser precipitation seasonality. Our results demonstrate the capacity of TMFs to store substantial amounts of carbon and suggest the existence of a trade-off in carbon stocks among forest compartments, which could be partly driven by differences in precipitation seasonality, especially under the colder temperatures of high altitudes. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Woody plant taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity decrease along elevational gradients in Andean tropical montane forests: Environmental filtering and arrival of temperate taxa(KeAi Publishing Communications Ltd., 2024-07-01)Mountains are paramount for exploring biodiversity patterns due to the mosaic of topographies and climates encompassed over short distances. Biodiversity research has traditionally focused on taxonomic diversity when investigating changes along elevational gradients, but other facets should be considered. For first time, we simultaneously assessed elevational trends in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of woody plants in Andean tropical montane forests and explored their underlying ecological and evolutionary causes. This investigation covered four transects (traversing ca. 2200 m a.s.l.) encompassing 114 plots of 0.1 ha across a broad latitudinal range (ca. 10°). Using Hill numbers to quantify abundance-based diversity among 37,869 individuals we observed a consistent decrease in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity as elevation increased, although the decrease was less pronounced for higher Hill orders. The exception was a slight increase in phylogenetic diversity when dominant species were over-weighted. The decrease in taxonomic and functional diversity might be attributed to an environmental filtering process towards highlands, where the increasingly harsher conditions exclude species and functional strategies. Besides, the differences in steepness decrease between Hill orders suggest that rare species disproportionately contribute to functional diversity. For phylogenetic diversity the shifting elevational trend between Hill orders indicates a greater than previously considered influence in central Andean highlands of tropical lowlands originated species with strong niche conservatism relative to distantly related temperate lineages. This could be explained by a decreasing presence and abundance of temperate, extratropical taxa towards the central Andes relative to northern or southern Andes, where they are more prevalent.