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Do tree species characteristics influence soil respiration in tropical forests? A test based on 16 tree species planted in monospecific plots

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Abstract

The high spatial variability of soil respiration in tropical rainforests is well evaluated, but influences of biotic factors are not clearly understood. This study underlines the influence of tree species characteristics on soil respiration across a 16-monospecific plot design in a tropical plantation of French Guiana. A large variability of soil CO2 fluxes was observed among plots (i.e. 2.8 to 6.8 μmol m−2 s−1) with the ranking being constant across seasons. There were no significant relationships between soil respiration and soil moisture or soil temperature, neither spatially, nor seasonally. The variability of soil respiration was mainly explained by quantitative factors such as leaf litterfall and basal area. Surprisingly, no significant relationship was observed between soil respiration and root biomass. However, the influence of substrate quality was revealed by a strong relationship between soil respiration and litterfall P (and litterfall N, to a lesser extent).

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Acknowledgments

We thank CIRAD-Forêt for permission to conduct research in the Paracou plantations. This research was supported by a FNS program (ACI PNBC) from the French Ministry of Research. We are grateful to Jean-Yves Goret, Audin Patient and Cyril Douthe and all casual workers for assistance with the field measurements. We also thank J-Y. Goret for providing the meteorological data. Finally, we are grateful for the comments of two anonymous reviewers, which greatly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Laëtitia Bréchet, Stéphane Ponton, Vincent Freycon & Damien Bonal

  2. CNRS, UMR Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, 1919, Route de Mende, 34293, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Jacques Roy & Marie-Madeleine Coûteaux

  3. CIRAD, UPR Dynamique des Forêts Naturelles, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Vincent Freycon

  4. Université Henri Poincaré Nancy 1, UMR Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestière, BP 239, 54506, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France

    Daniel Epron

  5. Forest Ecology and Ecophysiology Unit—UMR EEF, National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA)—Centre de Recherche de Nancy, 54280, Champenoux, France

    Stéphane Ponton

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  1. Laëtitia Bréchet
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  2. Stéphane Ponton
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  3. Jacques Roy
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  4. Vincent Freycon
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  5. Marie-Madeleine Coûteaux
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  6. Damien Bonal
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  7. Daniel Epron
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Correspondence to Stéphane Ponton.

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Bréchet, L., Ponton, S., Roy, J. et al. Do tree species characteristics influence soil respiration in tropical forests? A test based on 16 tree species planted in monospecific plots. Plant Soil 319, 235–246 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9866-z

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