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The Role of Dissolved Organic Carbon, Dissolved Organic Nitrogen, and Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen in a Tropical Wet Forest Ecosystem

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Abstract

Although tropical wet forests play an important role in the global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles, little is known about the origin, composition, and fate of dissolved organic C (DOC) and N (DON) in these ecosystems. We quantified and characterized fluxes of DOC, DON, and dissolved inorganic N (DIN) in throughfall, litter leachate, and soil solution of an old-growth tropical wet forest to assess their contribution to C stabilization (DOC) and to N export (DON and DIN) from this ecosystem. We found that the forest canopy was a major source of DOC (232 kg C ha–1 y–1). Dissolved organic C fluxes decreased with soil depth from 277 kg C ha–1 y–1 below the litter layer to around 50 kg C kg C ha–1 y–1 between 0.75 and 3.5m depth. Laboratory experiments to quantify biodegradable DOC and DON and to estimate the DOC sorption capacity of the soil, combined with chemical analyses of DOC, revealed that sorption was the dominant process controlling the observed DOC profiles in the soil. This sorption of DOC by the soil matrix has probably led to large soil organic C stores, especially below the rooting zone. Dissolved N fluxes in all strata were dominated by mineral N (mainly NO −3 ). The dominance of NO –3 relative to the total amount nitrate of N leaching from the soil shows that NO –3 is dominant not only in forest ecosystems receiving large anthropogenic nitrogen inputs but also in this old-growth forest ecosystem, which is not N-limited.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Ve 219–1 and –2). Additional support was provided by funding for the CARBONO Project by the US National Science Foundation under grant DEB 9629245, the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02–96ER62289), and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We thank Markus Kleber, Institute of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, for providing the results on soil mineralogical properties. We thank Tania Brenes and Marcela Fernandez for conducting the DIN analyses. The DOC fractionation was carried out at the DOC Labor of Dr. Huber in Karlsruhe, Germany. We are grateful to Deborah Clark, David Clark, Steven Oberbauer, and Laura Hudson for reviewing an earlier version of the manuscript. The manuscript was greatly improved by the suggestions offered by Phillip Sollins and an anonymous reviewer. We thank the La Selva staff for their continual support.

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  1. Luitgard Schwendenmann

    Present address: Tropical silviculture, Institute of silviculture, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

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  1. Institute of Soil Science and Forest Nutrition, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

    Luitgard Schwendenmann & Edzo Veldkamp

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  1. Luitgard Schwendenmann
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Correspondence to Luitgard Schwendenmann.

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Schwendenmann, L., Veldkamp, E. The Role of Dissolved Organic Carbon, Dissolved Organic Nitrogen, and Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen in a Tropical Wet Forest Ecosystem. Ecosystems 8, 339–351 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-003-0088-1

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