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Does spatial distribution of tree size account for spatial variation in soil respiration in a tropical forest?

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Abstract

We explored the relationship between soil processes, estimated through soil respiration (R soil ), and the spatial variation in forest structure, assessed through the distribution of tree size, in order to understand the determinism of spatial variations in R soil in a tropical forest. The influence of tree size was examined using an index (I c ) calculated for each tree as a function of (1) the trunk cross section area and (2) the distance from the measurement point. We investigated the relationships between I c and litterfall, root mass and R soil , respectively. Strong significant relationships were found between I c and both litterfall and root mass. R soil showed a large range of variations over the 1-ha experimental plot, from 1.5 to 12.6 gC m−2 d−1. The best relationship between I c and R soil only explained 17% of the spatial variation in R soil . These results support the assumption that local spatial patterns in litter production and root mass depend on tree distribution in tropical forests. Our study also emphasizes the modest contribution of tree size distribution–which is mainly influenced by the presence of the biggest trees (among the large range size of the inventoried trees greater than 10 cm diameter at 1.30 m above ground level or at 0.5 m above the buttresses)–in explaining spatial variations in R soil .

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a PhD Grant from the French “Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Recherche” to LB. The ORE “Ecosystèmes Forestiers” managed by GIP-Ecofor contributed to the funding of the field experiment. We are grateful to Jean-Yves Goret, Cyril Douthe and Louis Maire for their help during data acquisition in the field, to Pierre Chauvet for the geostatistical analyses, and to Amy Deacon for the improvement of the English writing. The helpful comments from two anonymous reviewers on a previous version of this article were greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, Campus Agronomique, BP 709, 97387, Kourou cedex, French Guiana

    Laëtitia Bréchet, Stéphane Ponton, Tancrède Alméras & Damien Bonal

  2. INRA, UMR 1137, Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières, Centre de Nancy, 54280, Champenoux, France

    Stéphane Ponton, Damien Bonal & Daniel Epron

  3. CNRS, UMR Laboratoire de mécanique et génie civil, Université Montpellier 2, 34095, Montpellier cedex, France

    Tancrède Alméras

  4. Nancy Université, Université Henri Poincaré, UMR 1137, Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières, Faculté des Sciences, 54500, Vandoeuvre les Nancy, France

    Stéphane Ponton, Damien Bonal & Daniel Epron

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  1. Laëtitia Bréchet
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  2. Stéphane Ponton
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  3. Tancrède Alméras
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  4. Damien Bonal
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  5. Daniel Epron
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Correspondence to Laëtitia Bréchet.

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Responsible Editor: Katja Klumpp.

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Bréchet, L., Ponton, S., Alméras, T. et al. Does spatial distribution of tree size account for spatial variation in soil respiration in a tropical forest?. Plant Soil 347, 293–303 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0848-1

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