Article (Scientific journals)
Environmental filtering of dense-wooded species controls above-ground biomass stored in African moist forests
Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie; Rossi, Vivien; Réjou-Méchain, Maxime et al.
2011In Journal of Ecology, 99 (4), p. 981-990
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Abstract :
[en] 1. Regional above-ground biomass estimates for tropical moist forests remain highly inaccurate mostly because they are based on extrapolations from a few plots scattered across a limited range of soils and other environmental conditions. When such conditions impact biomass, the estimation is biased. The effect of soil types on biomass has especially yielded controversial results. 2. We investigated the relationship between above-ground biomass and soil type in undisturbed moist forests in the Central African Republic. We tested the effects of soil texture, as a surrogate for soil resources availability and physical constraints (soil depth and hydromorphy) on biomass. Forest inventory data were collected for trees ≥20 cm stem diameter in 2754 0.5 ha plots scattered over 4888 km². The plots contained 224 taxons, of which 209 were identified to species. Soil types were characterized from a 1:1 000 000 scale soil map. Species-specific values for wood density were extracted from the CIRAD’s data base of wood technological properties. 3. We found that basal area and biomass differ in their responses to soil type, ranging from 17.8 m² ha-1 (217.5 t ha-1) to 22.3 m² ha-1 (273.3 t ha-1). While shallow and hydromorphic soils support forests with both low stem basal area and low biomass, forests on deep resource-poor soils are typically low in basal area but as high in biomass as forests on deep resource-rich soils. We demonstrated that the environmental filtering of slow growing dense-wooded species on resource-poor soils compensates for the low basal area, and we discuss whether this filtering effect is due to low fertility or to low water reserve. 4. Synthesis. We showed that soil physical conditions constrained the amount of biomass stored in tropical moist forests. Contrary to previous reports, our results suggest that biomass is similar on resource-poor and resource-rich soils. This finding highlights both the importance of taking into account soil characteristics and species wood density when trying to predict regional patterns of biomass. Our findings have implications for the evaluation of biomass stocks in tropical forests, in the context of the international negotiations on climate change.
Research center :
Centre de coopération internation pour la recherche agronomique et le développement - CIRAD
Disciplines :
Phytobiology (plant sciences, forestry, mycology...)
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie
Rossi, Vivien
Réjou-Méchain, Maxime
Freycon, Vincent
Fayolle, Adeline  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Forêts, Nature et Paysage > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels
Saint-André, Laurent
Cornu, Guillaume
Gérard, Jean
Sarrailh, Jean-Michel
Flores, Olivier
Baya, Fidèle
Billand, Alain
Fauvet, Nicolas
Gally, Michel
Henry, Matieu
Hubert, Didier
Pasquier, Alexandra
Picard, Nicolas
More authors (8 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
Environmental filtering of dense-wooded species controls above-ground biomass stored in African moist forests
Alternative titles :
[en] Le filtrage environnementaledes espèces d'arbres à bois dense controle la biomasse aérienne ligneuse contenues dans les forêts tropicales humides africaines
Publication date :
July 2011
Journal title :
Journal of Ecology
ISSN :
0022-0477
eISSN :
1365-2745
Publisher :
Blackwell Publishing
Special issue title :
Journal of Ecology
Volume :
99
Issue :
4
Pages :
981-990
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Name of the research project :
CoForChange
Funders :
UE - Union Européenne [BE]
Available on ORBi :
since 30 August 2012

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