Nutrient Cycling In Tropical Forest Ecosystems

Brings together much of the recent literature on nutrient cycling due to conversion of forests to croplands, pastures, and plantation forests. It explains why nutrients are often very critical in tropical humid ecosystems and discusses principles that can guide land managers to conserve nutrients and sustain productivity.

The long-term productivity of forest ecosystems depends on the cycling of nutrients. The effect of carbon dioxide fertilization on forest productivity may ultimately be limited by the rate of nutrient cycling. Contemporary and future disturbances such as climatic warming, N-deposition, deforestation, short rotation sylviculture, fire (both wild and controlled), and the invasion of exotic species all place strains on the integrity of ecosystem nutrient cycling. Global differences in climate, soils, and species make it difficult to extrapolate even a single important study worldwide. Despite advances in the understanding of nutrient cycling and carbon production in forests, many questions remain. The chapters in this volume reflect many contemporary research priorities. The thirteen studies in this volume are arranged in the following subject groups: • N and P resorption from foliage worldwide, along chronosequences and along elevation gradients; • Litter production and decomposition; • N and P stoichiometry as affected by N deposition, geographic gradients, species changes, and ecosystem restoration; • Effects of N and P addition on understory biomass, litter, and soil; • Effects of burning on soil nutrients; • Effects of N addition on soil fauna.

The long-term productivity of forest ecosystems depends on the cycling of nutrients. The effect of carbon dioxide fertilization on forest productivity may ultimately be limited by the rate of nutrient cycling. Contemporary and future disturbances such as climatic warming, N-deposition, deforestation, short rotation sylviculture, fire (both wild and controlled), and the invasion of exotic species all place strains on the integrity of ecosystem nutrient cycling. Global differences in climate, soils, and species make it difficult to extrapolate even a single important study worldwide. Despite advances in the understanding of nutrient cycling and carbon production in forests, many questions remain. The chapters in this volume reflect many contemporary research priorities. The thirteen studies in this volume are arranged in the following subject groups: • N and P resorption from foliage worldwide, along chronosequences and along elevation gradients; • Litter production and decomposition; • N and P stoichiometry as affected by N deposition, geographic gradients, species changes, and ecosystem restoration; • Effects of N and P addition on understory biomass, litter, and soil; • Effects of burning on soil nutrients; • Effects of N addition on soil fauna.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Urban and Periurban Forest Diversity and Ecosystem Services" that was published in Forests

Deforestation and land use change have led to a strong reduction of tropical forest cover during the last decades. Climate change will amplify the pressure to the remaining refuges in the next years. In addition, tropical regions are facing increasing atmospheric inputs of nutrients, which will have unknown consequences for the structure and functioning of these systems, no matter if they are within protected areas or not. Even remote areas are expected to receive rising amounts of nutrients. The effects of higher rates of atmospheric nutrient deposition on the biological diversity and ecosystem functioning of tropical ecosystems are poorly understood and our knowledge of nutrient fluxes and nutrient limitation in tropical forest ecosystems is still limited. Yet, it will be of paramount importance to know the effects of increased nutrient availability to conserve these ecosystems with their biological and functional diversity. During the last years, research efforts have more and more focused on the understanding of the role of nutrients in tropical ecosystems and several coordinated projects have been established that study the effects of experimental nutrient addition. This Research Topic combines results from experiments and from observational studies with the aim to review and conclude on our current knowledge on the role of additional nutrients in ecosystems.

This volume brings together different 'schools' of ecological investigation of woodlands. After a description of the structure and floristic composition of the research sites, involving a comparison of boreal, temperate, Mediterranean and tropical forest, the study goes on to consider the dynamic aspects of the woodland formation.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of nutrient cycling processes and their importance for plant growth and ecosystem sustainability. The book combines fundamental scientific studies and devised practical approaches. It contains contributions of leading international authorities from various disciplines resulting in multidisciplinary approaches, and all chapters have been carefully reviewed. This volume will support scientists and practitioners alike.

Tropical forest nutrients, where do we stands? A tour de horizon; Soil characteristics and classification in relation to the mineral nutrition of tropical wooded ecosystems; podelogical processes and nutrientsupplical soils; Variations in soil nutrients in relation to soil moisture ststus in a tropical forested ecosystem; Nitrification and humid tropical ecosystems: potential controls on nitrogen retention; The effect of humus acids and soil heating on the availability of phosphate in oxide-rich tropical soils; Factores affecting nutrient cycling in trpical soils; Mineral nutrients in some betwana savanna types; root symbioses of trees in savannas; Mineral nutrient dynamics during savanna-forest tranformation in central america; Mineral nutrients in tropical dry deciduous forest and savanna ecosystems in india; Mycorrhizas in tropical forest; Chemical relationships between vegetation, soil and water in contrasting inundation areas of amazonia; Are process rates higher in tropical forest ecosystems? Patterns of nutrient accumulation and release in amazonian forests the upper rio negro basin; Soil nutrients and plant secondary compouds; Chemical elements in forests on volcan barva, costa rica; A biossay study of soils in the blue mountains of jamaica; Nutrient effects of modification of shifting cultivare in west Africa; Role of weeds in nutrient cycling in the cropping phase of milpa agriculture in belize, central america; Mineralization of nutrients after forest clearance and their upteke during cropping; Nutrient dynamics in forest fallows in southe-east Asia; Nutriernt cycling in forest falows in nort-easteern India; The use mathematical models in the development of shifting cultivation systems; Nutritional constraintsin secondary vegetation and upland rice in south-west ivory coast; Nutryent cycling in moist tropical forests: the hydrological; fremework; The role of mineral nutrients in the tropics: a plant ecologist's view; Mineral nutrients in tropical ecosystems: a soil scientist's view.