Articles | Volume 13, issue 22
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-6183-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-6183-2016
Research article
 | 
17 Nov 2016
Research article |  | 17 Nov 2016

Changes in soil carbon and nutrients following 6 years of litter removal and addition in a tropical semi-evergreen rain forest

Edmund Vincent John Tanner, Merlin W. A. Sheldrake, and Benjamin L. Turner

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Cited articles

Bowden, R. D., Deem, L., Plante, A. F., Peltre, C., Nadelhoffer, K., and Lajtha, K.: Litter input controls soil carbon in temperate deciduous forest, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 78, s66–s75, 2014.
Burnham, K. P. and Anderson, D. R.: Information and likelihood theory: a basis for model selection and inference, in: Model Selection and Multimodel Inference, edited by: Burnham, K. P. and Anderson, D. R., Springer New York, 49–97, 2002.
Clemmensen, K. E., Bahr, A., Ovaskainen, O., Dahlberg, A., Ekblad, A., Wallander, H., Stenlid, J. Finlay, R. D., Wardle, D. A., and Lindahl, B. D.: Roots and associated fungi drive long-term carbon sequestration in boreal forest, Science, 339, 1615–1618, 2013.
Jobbagy, E. G. and Jackson, R. B.: The vertical distribution of soil organic carbon and its relation to climate and vegetation, Ecol. Appl., 10, 423–436, 2000.
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Short summary
Tropical rain forest are likely to grow more, and produce more litterfall, as a result of increasing temperature and carbon dioxide. We experimentally doubled litterfall in large plots in forest in Panama; there were also removal plots. After 6 years of continuously adding litter, we found that soil organic matter and many plant-available nutrients were increased down to as far as 30 cm into the soil. This increase in organic carbon in the soil reduces the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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