TY - JOUR
T1 - The variation of productivity and its allocation along a tropical elevation gradient
T2 - a whole carbon budget perspective
AU - Malhi, Yadvinder
AU - Girardin, Cécile A.J.
AU - Goldsmith, Gregory R.
AU - Doughty, Christopher E.
AU - Salinas, Norma
AU - Metcalfe, Daniel B.
AU - Huaraca Huasco, Walter
AU - Silva-Espejo, Javier E.
AU - del Aguilla-Pasquell, Jhon
AU - Farfán Amézquita, Filio
AU - Aragão, Luiz E.O.C.
AU - Guerrieri, Rossella
AU - Ishida, Françoise Yoko
AU - Bahar, Nur H.A.
AU - Farfan-Rios, William
AU - Phillips, Oliver L.
AU - Meir, Patrick
AU - Silman, Miles
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - Why do forest productivity and biomass decline with elevation? To address this question, research to date generally has focused on correlative approaches describing changes in woody growth and biomass with elevation. We present a novel, mechanistic approach to this question by quantifying the autotrophic carbon budget in 16 forest plots along a 3300 m elevation transect in Peru. Low growth rates at high elevations appear primarily driven by low gross primary productivity (GPP), with little shift in either carbon use efficiency (CUE) or allocation of net primary productivity (NPP) between wood, fine roots and canopy. The lack of trend in CUE implies that the proportion of photosynthate allocated to autotrophic respiration is not sensitive to temperature. Rather than a gradual linear decline in productivity, there is some limited but nonconclusive evidence of a sharp transition in NPP between submontane and montane forests, which may be caused by cloud immersion effects within the cloud forest zone. Leaf-level photosynthetic parameters do not decline with elevation, implying that nutrient limitation does not restrict photosynthesis at high elevations. Our data demonstrate the potential of whole carbon budget perspectives to provide a deeper understanding of controls on ecosystem functioning and carbon cycling.
AB - Why do forest productivity and biomass decline with elevation? To address this question, research to date generally has focused on correlative approaches describing changes in woody growth and biomass with elevation. We present a novel, mechanistic approach to this question by quantifying the autotrophic carbon budget in 16 forest plots along a 3300 m elevation transect in Peru. Low growth rates at high elevations appear primarily driven by low gross primary productivity (GPP), with little shift in either carbon use efficiency (CUE) or allocation of net primary productivity (NPP) between wood, fine roots and canopy. The lack of trend in CUE implies that the proportion of photosynthate allocated to autotrophic respiration is not sensitive to temperature. Rather than a gradual linear decline in productivity, there is some limited but nonconclusive evidence of a sharp transition in NPP between submontane and montane forests, which may be caused by cloud immersion effects within the cloud forest zone. Leaf-level photosynthetic parameters do not decline with elevation, implying that nutrient limitation does not restrict photosynthesis at high elevations. Our data demonstrate the potential of whole carbon budget perspectives to provide a deeper understanding of controls on ecosystem functioning and carbon cycling.
KW - Global Ecosystems Monitoring network (GEM)
KW - RAINFOR
KW - climate
KW - cloud forest
KW - photosynthesis
KW - physiology
KW - temperature
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U2 - 10.1111/nph.14189
DO - 10.1111/nph.14189
M3 - Article
C2 - 27768811
AN - SCOPUS:84992363251
SN - 0028-646X
VL - 214
SP - 1019
EP - 1032
JO - New Phytologist
JF - New Phytologist
IS - 3
ER -