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Conversion of tropical lowland forest reduces nutrient return through litterfall, and alters nutrient use efficiency and seasonality of net primary production

  • Ecosystem ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Tropical landscapes are not only rapidly transformed by ongoing land-use change, but are additionally confronted by increasing seasonal climate variation. There is an increasing demand for studies analyzing the effects and feedbacks on ecosystem functioning of large-scale conversions of tropical natural forest into intensively managed cash crop agriculture. We analyzed the seasonality of aboveground litterfall, fine root litter production, and aboveground woody biomass production (ANPPwoody) in natural lowland forests, rubber agroforests under natural tree cover (“jungle rubber”), rubber and oil palm monocultures along a forest-to-agriculture transformation gradient in Sumatra. We hypothesized that the temporal fluctuation of litter production increases with increasing land-use intensity, while the associated nutrient fluxes and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) decrease. Indeed, the seasonal variation of aboveground litter production and ANPPwoody increased from the natural forest to the plantations, while aboveground litterfall generally decreased. Nutrient return through aboveground litter was mostly highest in the natural forest; however, it was significantly lower only in rubber plantations. NUE of N, P and K was lowest in the oil palm plantations, with natural forest and the rubber systems showing comparably high values. Root litter production was generally lower than leaf litter production in all systems, while the root-to-leaf ratio of litter C flux increased along the land-use intensity gradient. Our results suggest that nutrient and C cycles are more directly affected by climate seasonality in species-poor agricultural systems than in species-rich forests, and therefore might be more susceptible to inter-annual climate fluctuation and climate change.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in the framework of the collaborative German—Indonesian research project CRC990 Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia). We thank village leaders, local plot owners, PT REKI and Bukit Duabelas National Park for granting us access to and use of their properties as well as counterparts and local assistants for support. We also thank Ana Meijide for proving precipitation data and Kara Allen and Syahrul Kurniawan for proving soil data on the study region. This study was conducted using samples collected with collection Permit No. 2704/IPH.1/KS.02/X1/2012 and Export Permit No. 49/KKH-5/TRP/2014 recommended by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and issued by the Ministry of Forestry.

Author contribution statement

M. M. K., C. L. and D. H. conceived and designed the experiments. M. M. K. performed the fieldwork and data analysis. M. M. K., C. L. and D. H. wrote the manuscript. T. T. provided editorial advice and supported local administrative issues and sample export.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, Albrecht von Haller Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Martyna M. Kotowska, Christoph Leuschner & Dietrich Hertel

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia

    Triadiati Triadiati

Authors
  1. Martyna M. Kotowska
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  2. Christoph Leuschner
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  3. Triadiati Triadiati
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  4. Dietrich Hertel
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Correspondence to Martyna M. Kotowska.

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Communicated by Mercedes Bustamante.

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Kotowska, M.M., Leuschner, C., Triadiati, T. et al. Conversion of tropical lowland forest reduces nutrient return through litterfall, and alters nutrient use efficiency and seasonality of net primary production. Oecologia 180, 601–618 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3481-5

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