Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Diversity enhances carbon storage in tropical forests
2015; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/geb.12364
ISSN1466-8238
AutoresLourens Poorter, Masha T. van der Sande, Jill Thompson, E.J.M.M. Arets, Alejandro Alarcón, Javier Álvarez-Sánchez, Nataly Ascarrunz, Patricia Balvanera, Guadalupe Barajas-Guzmán, Alice Boit, Frans Bongers, Fabrício Alvim Carvalho, Fernando Casanoves, Guadalupe Cornejo‐Tenorio, Flávia R. C. Costa, Carolina V. Castilho, Joost F. Duivenvoorden, Loïc Dutrieux, Brian J. Enquist, Fernando Fernández-Méndez, Bryan Finegan, Lorraine H. L. Gormley, John R. Healey, Marcel R. Hoosbeek, Guillermo Ibarra‐Manríquez, André Braga Junqueira, Carolina Levis, Juan Carlos Licona, Leila Sheila Silva Lisbôa, William E. Magnusson, Miguel Martínez‐Ramos, Angelina Martínez‐Yrízar, Lucieta Guerreiro Martorano, Lindsay C. Maskell, Lucas Mazzei, Jorge A. Meave, Francisco Mora, Rodrigo Muñoz, Christopher J. Nytch, Marcelo Petratti Pansonato, Terence W. Parr, Horacio Paz, Eduardo A. Pérez‐García, Lyliana Y. Rentería, Jorge Rodríguez‐Velázquez, Danaë M. A. Rozendaal, Ademir Roberto Ruschel, Boris Sakschewski, Beatriz Salgado‐Negret, Juliana Schietti, Margareth Simões, Fergus Sinclair, Priscila Figueira de Souza, Fernanda Coelho de Souza, Juliana Stropp, Hans ter Steege, Nathan G. Swenson, Kirsten Thonicke, Marisol Toledo, María Uriarte, P. van der Hout, Patricia W. Walker, Nelson Rodríguez, Marielos Peña‐Claros,
Tópico(s)Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
ResumoAbstract Aim Tropical forests store 25% of global carbon and harbour 96% of the world's tree species, but it is not clear whether this high biodiversity matters for carbon storage. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of forest attributes and environmental drivers for ecosystem functioning, and no such study exists for the tropics. Location Neotropics. Methods We relate aboveground biomass ( AGB ) to forest attributes (diversity and structure) and environmental drivers (annual rainfall and soil fertility) using data from 144,000 trees, 2050 forest plots and 59 forest sites. The sites span the complete latitudinal and climatic gradients in the lowland Neotropics, with rainfall ranging from 750 to 4350 mm year −1 . Relationships were analysed within forest sites at scales of 0.1 and 1 ha and across forest sites along large‐scale environmental gradients. We used a structural equation model to test the hypothesis that species richness, forest structural attributes and environmental drivers have independent, positive effects on AGB . Results Across sites, AGB was most strongly driven by rainfall, followed by average tree stem diameter and rarefied species richness, which all had positive effects on AGB . Our indicator of soil fertility (cation exchange capacity) had a negligible effect on AGB , perhaps because we used a global soil database. Taxonomic forest attributes (i.e. species richness, rarefied richness and Shannon diversity) had the strongest relationships with AGB at small spatial scales, where an additional species can still make a difference in terms of niche complementarity, while structural forest attributes (i.e. tree density and tree size) had strong relationships with AGB at all spatial scales. Main conclusions Biodiversity has an independent, positive effect on AGB and ecosystem functioning, not only in relatively simple temperate systems but also in structurally complex hyperdiverse tropical forests. Biodiversity conservation should therefore be a key component of the UN Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation strateg y.
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