*
 

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

*

Contribution of legume and non-legume trees to litter dynamics and C-N-P inputs in a secondary seasonally dry tropical forest

Naiara Machado Neves (1), Ranieri Ribeiro Paula (1-2-3)   , Eduardo Alves Araujo (1), Gomes Gorsani Rodrigo (1-4), Karla Maria Pedra de Abreu (5), Sustanis Horn Kunz (1)

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 15, Issue 1, Pages 8-15 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor3442-014
Published: Jan 13, 2022 - Copyright © 2022 SISEF

Research Articles


Many studies have investigated nutrient cycling in seasonally dry tropical forests, but few have assessed the contribution of different functional groups to these processes. Here, we investigated general litter dynamics patterns and the contribution of legume and non-legume trees to litter dynamics and carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) inputs in a fragment of secondary seasonally dry tropical forest after half a century of forest succession in the Atlantic Forest biome in Brazil. Between 2016 and 2017, we quantified litterfall production, canopy cover, forest floor, and soil C and N storage in 11 permanent plots distributed in the fragment. Vegetation identity and structure had been previously assessed. We quantified the seasonal inputs of leaf litter and C, N, and P separately for each functional group (legume and non-legume tree species). We also analyzed the correlations between the variables measured for each functional group with the variables measured at the plot level. Litter dynamics and nutrient input were affected by climate and functional group. Litterfall production during the two driest months was three times higher than during the other periods of the year, suggesting that species synchronicity is likely to minimize drought-related damage on trees. Legume trees had twice the basal area attained by non-legume trees, but while legumes were larger, non-legumes were more abundant and dominant in the smaller diameter class. Legumes deposited twice as much N during the driest period of the year as non-legumes. Although leaf litter, C, and P inputs by legumes were generally higher than those of non-legumes, these differences during the dry season were not statistically significant. We also found that the legume variables correlated better with the plot-level variables, compared to the non-legume functional group. Our results also indicated potential effects of the leaf litter and nutrient inputs by the legume functional group on the decomposition constant and, consequently, on the time of forest floor decomposition. Further studies should assess the role of different functional groups in litter dynamics and nutrient inputs in seasonally dry tropical forests.

  Keywords


Nutrient Cycling, Litterfall, Nutrient Input, Canopy Cover, Decomposition Rate, Fabaceae, Atlantic Forest

Authors’ address

(1)
Naiara Machado Neves 0000-0002-7280-9621
Ranieri Ribeiro Paula 0000-0002-2520-1779
Eduardo Alves Araujo 0000-0003-2300-1332
Gomes Gorsani Rodrigo
Sustanis Horn Kunz 0000-0001-6937-7787
UFES, Departamento de Ciências Florestais e da Madeira, Av. Governador Carlos Lindemberg, 316, Jerônimo Monteiro-ES, CEP 29.550-000 (Brazil)
(2)
Ranieri Ribeiro Paula 0000-0002-2520-1779
UFES, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Produção Vegetal, Alto Universitário, s/n, Alegre-ES, CEP 29.500-000 (Brazil)
(3)
Ranieri Ribeiro Paula 0000-0002-2520-1779
Instituto Nacional da Mata Atlntica - INMA-MCTI, Avenida José Ruschi, km 136, Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo, CEP 29650-000 (Brazil)
(4)
Gomes Gorsani Rodrigo
Laboratório de Ecologia e Evolução de Plantas - Programa de pós-graduação em Botnica, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, CEP 36570-900, Viçosa, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
(5)
Karla Maria Pedra de Abreu
Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Espírito Santo - Ifes, Campus de Alegre, Rod. 482, km 47, 29520-000, Alegre, ES (Brazil)

Corresponding author

 
Ranieri Ribeiro Paula
ranierirpaula@gmail.com

Citation

Neves NM, Paula RR, Araujo EA, Gorsani Rodrigo G, Abreu KMP, Kunz SH (2022). Contribution of legume and non-legume trees to litter dynamics and C-N-P inputs in a secondary seasonally dry tropical forest. iForest 15: 8-15. - doi: 10.3832/ifor3442-014

Academic Editor

Maurizio Ventura

Paper history

Received: Apr 08, 2020
Accepted: Oct 31, 2021

First online: Jan 13, 2022
Publication Date: Feb 28, 2022
Publication Time: 2.47 months

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 1731
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 0
Abstract Page Views: 0
PDF Downloads: 1536
Citation/Reference Downloads: 1
XML Downloads: 194

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 1002
Overall contacts: 1731
Avg. contacts per week: 12.09

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Nov 2020)

(No citations were found up to date. Please come back later)


 

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

 
(1)
Agren GI, Hyvönen R, Berglund SL, Hobbie SE (2013)
Estimating the critical N: C from litter decomposition data and its relation to soil organic matter stoichiometry. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 67: 312-318.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(2)
Arato HD, Martins SV, Ferrari SHS (2003)
Produção e decomposição de serapilheira em um sistema agroflorestal implantado para recuperação de área degradada em Viçosa-MG [Litterfall production and decomposition in an agroforestry system implemented to recover a degraded area in Viçosa-MG]. Revista Árvore 27: 715-721. [in Portuguese]
CrossRef | Gscholar
(3)
Araújo VFP, Barbosa MRV, Araújo JP, Vasconcellos A (2019)
Spatial-temporal variation in litterfall in seasonally dry tropical forests in Northeastern Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Biology 80 (2): 273-284.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(4)
Batterman SA, Hedin LO, Van Breugel M, Ransijn J, Craven DJ, Hall JS (2013)
Key role of symbiotic dinitrogen fixation in tropical forest secondary succession. Nature 502: 224-227.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(5)
Barrie A, Prosser S (1996)
Automated analysis of light element stable isotopes by isotope ratio mass spectrometry. In: “Mass Spectrometry of Soils” (Boutton TW, Yamasaki S eds). Marcel Dekker, New York, USA, pp. 520.
Online | Gscholar
(6)
Binkley D, Giardina C (1997)
Nitrogen fixation in tropical forest plantations. In: “Management of Soil, Nutrients and Water in Tropical Plantation Forests” (Nambiar EKS, Brown AG eds). Aciar, Canberra, Australia, pp. 297-337.
Gscholar
(7)
Campo J, Merino A (2016)
Variations in soil carbon sequestration and their determinants along a precipitation gradient in seasonally dry tropical forest ecosystems. Global Change Biology 22: 1942-1956.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(8)
Cao S, Sanchez-Azofeifa G, Duran S, Calvo-Rodriguez S (2016)
Estimation of aboveground net primary productivity in secondary tropical dry forests using the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach (CASA) model. Environmental Research Letters 11: 075004.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(9)
Ceccon E, Sánchez S, Campo J (2004)
Tree seedling dynamics in two abandoned tropical dry forests of differing successional status in Yucatán, Mexico: a field experiment with N and P fertilization. Plant Ecology 170: 277-285.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(10)
Cipriani HN, Pulitano FM, Durigan G, Dias LE (2015)
Nutrient deposition by litterfall in different-aged riparian forests undergoing restoration. Revista Cientifica Eletronica de Engenharia Florestal 25 (1): 57-68.
Online | Gscholar
(11)
Cizungu L, Staelens J, Huygens D, Walangululu J, Muhindo D, Van Cleemput O, Boeckx P (2014)
Litterfall and leaf litter decomposition in a central African tropical mountain forest and Eucalyptus plantation. Forest Ecology and Management 326: 109-116.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(12)
Dan ML, Braga JMA, Nascimento MT (2010)
Estrutura da comunidade arbórea de fragmentos de floresta estacional semidecidual na bacia hidrográfica do rio São Domingos, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil [Tree community structure of fragments of semideciduous seasonal forest in the São Domingos river basin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]. Rodriguésia 61: 749-766.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(13)
Do Espírito-Santo MM, Olívio-Leite L, Neves FS, Ferreira-Nunes YR, Zazá-Borges MA, Dolabela-Falcão LA, Fonseca-Pezzini F, Louro-Berbara R, Maia-Valério H, Fernandes GW, Reinaldo-Leite M, Santos-Clemente CM, Esdras-Leite M (2013)
Tropical dry forests of northern Minas Gerais, Brazil: diversity, conservation status, and natural regeneration. In: “Tropical Dry Forests in the Americas” (Sánchez-Azofeifa A, Powers JS, Fernandes GW, Quesada M eds). CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA, pp. 87-100.
Online | Gscholar
(14)
Guerra E, Andrade BO, Morim MP, Vieira Iganci JR (2019)
Taxonomic delimitation of species complexes: a challenge for conservation; first steps with the Abarema cochliacarpos complex. Systematic Botany 44: 818-825.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(15)
Heineman KD, Turner BL, Dalling JW (2016)
Variation in wood nutrients along a tropical soil fertility gradient. New Phytologist 211: 440-454.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(16)
Hobbie SE (2015)
Plant species effects on nutrient cycling: revisiting litter feedbacks. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 30: 357-363.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(17)
INMET (2019)
Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia [National Institute of Meteorology]. Web site. [in Portuguese]
Online | Gscholar
(18)
Kaspari M, Yanoviak SP (2009)
Biogeochemistry and the structure of tropical brown food webs. Ecology 90: 3342-3351.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(19)
Kiehl EJ (1985)
Fertilizantes organicos [Organic fertilizers]. Editora Agronomica Ceres, Piracicaba, Brazil, pp. 492.
Gscholar
(20)
Lewis DB, Castellano MJ, Kaye JP (2014)
Forest succession, soil carbon accumulation, and rapid nitrogen storage in poorly remineralized soil organic matter. Ecology 95: 2687-2693.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(21)
Lorenzoni-Paschoa LS, Abreu KMP, Silva GF, Dias HM, Machado LA, Silva RDD (2019)
Estágio sucessional de uma floresta estacional semidecidual secundária com distintos históricos de uso do solo no sul do Espírito Santo [Successional stage of a semideciduous seasonal secondary forest with different land use history in the southern of Espírito Santo]. Rodriguésia 70: e02702017.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(22)
Lorenzoni-Paschoa LS (2016)
Indicadores de estágio sucessional em um fragmento florestal de Mata Atlntica no sul do Espírito Santo [Indicators successional stage in a shred of Atlantic forest in southern Espírito Santo]. MS thesis, Forest Sciences Department, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Jerônimo Monteiro, Brazil, pp. 106. [in Portuguese]
Gscholar
(23)
Magalhães SF, Calvo-Rodriguez S, Do Espírito Santo MM, Sánchez Azofeifa GA (2018)
Determining the K coefficient to leaf area index estimations in a tropical dry forest. International Journal of Biometeorology 62: 1187-1197.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(24)
Malavolta E, Vitti GC, Oliveira SA (1997)
Avaliacao do estado nutricional das plantas: principios e aplicações [Assessment of plant nutritional status: principles and applications]. Potafos, Piracicaba, Brazil, pp. 319. [in Portuguese]
Gscholar
(25)
Malhi Y, Doughty CE, Goldsmith GR, Metcalfe DB, Girardin CAJ, Marthews TR, Del Aguila-Pasquel J, Aragão LEOC, Araujo-Murakami A, Brando P, Da Costa ACL, Silva-Espejo JE, Farfán Amézquita F, Galbraith DR, Quesada CA, Rocha W, Salinas-Revilla N, Silvério D, Meir P, Phillips OL (2015)
The linkages between photosynthesis, productivity, growth and biomass in lowland Amazonian forests. Global Change Biology 21: 2283-2295.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(26)
Medina-Sauza RM, Alvarez-Jiménez M, Delhal A, Reverchon F, Blouin M, Guerrero-Analco JA, Cerdán CR, Guevara R, Villain L, Barois I (2019)
Earthworms building up soil microbiota, a review. Frontiers in Environmental Science 7: 1-20.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(27)
Moonen PCJ, Verbist B, Boyemba Bosela F, Norgrove L, Dondeyne S, Van Meerbeek K, Kearsley E, Verbeeck H, Vermeir P, Boeckx P, Muys B (2019)
Disentangling how management affects biomass stock and productivity of tropical secondary forests fallows. Science of the Total Environment 659: 101-114.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(28)
Moreira FMS, Siqueira JO (2006)
Microbiologia e bioquimica do solo [Soil microbiology and biochemistry]. Universidade Federal de Lavras -UFLA, Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil, pp. 729. [in Portuguese]
Gscholar
(29)
Nommik H, Vahtras K (1982)
Retention and fixation of ammonium and ammonia in soils. In: “Nitrogen in Agricultural Soils” (Stevenson FJ ed). American Society of Agronomy - ASA, Crop Science Society of America - CSSA and Soil Science Society of America - SSSA, Madison, WI, USA, pp. 123-171.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(30)
Oliveira CDC, Oliveira IRC, Suganuma MS, Durigan G (2019)
Overstory trees in excess: a threat to restoration success in Brazilian Atlantic forest. Forest Ecology and Management. 449: 117453.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(31)
Olson JS (1963)
Energy storage and balance of producers and decomposers in ecological systems. Ecology 44: 322-331.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(32)
Portillo-Quintero C, Sanchez-Azofeifa A, Calvo-Alvarado J, Quesada M, Do Espirito Santo MM (2015)
The role of tropical dry forests for biodiversity, carbon and water conservation in the neotropics: lessons learned and opportunities for its sustainable management. Regional Environmental Change 15: 1039-1049.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(33)
Portillo-Quintero CA, Sánchez-Azofeifa GA (2010)
Extent and conservation of tropical dry forests in the Americas. Biological Conservation 143: 144-155.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(34)
Rai A, Singh AK, Ghosal N, Singh N (2016)
Understanding the effectiveness of litter from tropical dry forests for the restoration of degraded lands. Ecological Engineering 93: 76-81.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(35)
Reed SC, Cleveland CC, Townsend AR (2007)
Controls over leaf litter and soil nitrogen fixation in two lowland tropical rain forests. Bio-tropica 39: 585-592.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(36)
Saar S, Semchenko M, Barel JM, De Deyn GB (2016)
Legume presence reduces the decomposition rate of non-legume roots. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 94: 88-93.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(37)
Shanks R, Olson JS (1961)
First year breakdown of leaf litter in Southern Appalachia. Science 134 (3473): 194-195.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(38)
Siddique I, Engel VL, Parrotta JA, Lamb D, Nardoto GB, Ometto JPHB, Martinelli LA, Schmidt S (2008)
Dominance of legume trees alters nutrient relations in mixed species forest restoration plantings within seven years. Biogeochemistry 88: 89-101.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(39)
Silva IR, Mendonca ES (2007)
Materia organica do solo [Soil organic matter]. In: “Fertilidade do solo” (Novais RF, Alvarez Venegas VH, Barros NF, Fontes RLF, Cantarutti RB, Lima JC eds). Sociedade Brasileira de Ciencia do Solo, Viçosa, MG, Brazil, pp. 275-374. [in Portuguese]
Gscholar
(40)
Souza LQ, De Freitas ADS, De Sampaio EVSB, Da Silva BLR, De Almeida Cortez JS, Menezes RSC (2012)
How much nitrogen is fixed by biological symbiosis in tropical dry forests? Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 94: 181-192.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(41)
Souza SR, Veloso MDM, Espírito-Santo MM, Silva JO, Sánchez-Azofeifa A, Souza Brito BG, Fernandes GW (2019)
Litterfall dynamics along a successional gradient in a Brazilian tropical dry forest. Forest Ecosystems 6: 35.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(42)
Systat (2014)
SigmaPlot v. 13. 0. Systat Software, Inc., San Jose, CA, USA.
Online | Gscholar
(43)
Taylor C, Gomes M, Zappi D (2015)
Psychotria. Lista de Especies da Flora do Brasil [Brazilian Flora Species List]. Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, web site. [in Portuguese]
Online | Gscholar
(44)
Tedesco MJ, Gianello C, Bissani CA, Bohnen H, Volkweiss SJ (1995)
Analise de solo, plantas e outros materiais [Analysis of soil, plants and other materials]. Technical Bulletin, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS, Departamento de Solos, Porto Alegre, Brazil, pp. 174. [in Portuguese]
Gscholar
(45)
Tichy L (2016)
Field test of canopy cover estimation by hemispherical photographs taken with a smartphone. Journal of Vegetation Science 27: 427-435.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(46)
Vieira DLM, Scariot A (2006)
Principles of natural regeneration of tropical dry forests for restoration. Restoration Ecology 14: 11-20.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(47)
Voigtlaender M, Brandani CB, Caldeira DRM, Tardy F, Bouillet J-P, Gonçalves JLM, Moreira MZ, Leite FP, Brunet D, Paula RR, Laclau J-P (2019)
Nitrogen cycling in monospecific and mixed-species plantations of Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus at 4 sites in Brazil. Forest Ecology and Management 436: 56-67.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(48)
Zhang H, Yuan W, Dong W, Liu S (2014)
Seasonal patterns of litterfall in forest ecosystem worldwide. Ecological Complexity 20: 240-247.
CrossRef | Gscholar
(49)
Zhu X, Zhang W, Chen H, Mo J (2015)
Impacts of nitrogen deposition on soil nitrogen cycle in forest ecosystems: a review. Acta Ecologica Sinica 35: 35-43.
CrossRef | Gscholar
 

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. More info