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Low stocks of coarse woody debris in a southwest Amazonian forest

Oecologia volume 152, pages 495–504 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The stocks and dynamics of coarse woody debris (CWD) are significant components of the carbon cycle within tropical forests. However, to date, there have been no reports of CWD stocks and fluxes from the approximately 1.3 million km2 of lowland western Amazonian forests. Here, we present estimates of CWD stocks and annual CWD inputs from forests in southern Peru. Total stocks were low compared to other tropical forest sites, whether estimated by line-intercept sampling (24.4 ± 5.3 Mg ha−1) or by complete inventories within 11 permanent plots (17.7 ± 2.4 Mg ha−1). However, annual inputs, estimated from long-term data on tree mortality rates in the same plots, were similar to other studies (3.8 ± 0.2 or 2.9 ± 0.2 Mg ha−1 year−1, depending on the equation used to estimate biomass). Assuming the CWD pool is at steady state, the turnover time of coarse woody debris is low (4.7 ± 2.6 or 6.1 ± 2.6 years). These results indicate that these sites have not experienced a recent, large-scale disturbance event and emphasise the distinctive, rapid nature of carbon cycling in these western Amazonian forests.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Luis Valenzuela, Margot Huicho and Janira Gonzalez Espinosa for assistance in the field, Julie Peacock for compiling the forest dynamics database used in this study, and Jon Lloyd, David Genney and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We thank INRENA for permission to conduct this research, and Peruvian Safaris S.A. (Explorer’s Inn) and Cuzco Amazonico lodges and their station managers for logistical support. Fieldwork was supported by NERC grant NE/B/503384/1 and the Royal Society (UK), and the National Geographic Society (USA). T.R.B. acknowledges financial support from NERC grant NE/B/503384/1 and a NERC postdoctoral fellowship, NE/C517484/1.

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Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Earth and Biosphere Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Timothy R. Baker, Oliver L. Phillips & Geertje M. F. van der Heijden

  2. Max Planck Institut für Biogeochemie, Jena, Germany

    Timothy R. Baker

  3. Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, Abelardo Quiñonez km 2.5, Iquitos, Peru

    Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado

  4. Sir Sandford Fleming College of Applied Arts and Technology, Lindsay, ON, Canada

    Jim Martin

  5. Centro de Estudios de Plantas Alimenticias y Medicinales, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Peru

    Michael Garcia & Javier Silva Espejo

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  1. Timothy R. Baker
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  2. Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado
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  3. Oliver L. Phillips
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Correspondence to Timothy R. Baker.

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Communicated by Ernst-Detlef Schulze.

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Baker, T.R., Honorio Coronado, E.N., Phillips, O.L. et al. Low stocks of coarse woody debris in a southwest Amazonian forest. Oecologia 152, 495–504 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0667-5

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Keywords

  • Decomposition rate
  • Net flux
  • Carbon balance
  • Permanent plot
  • Tropical forest