Lewis, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-8066-6851 (2023) First estimates of fine root production in tropical peat swamp and terra firme forests of the central Congo Basin. Scientific Reports, 13. 12315. ISSN 2045-2322
Abstract
Tropical peatlands are carbon-dense ecosystems because they accumulate partially-decomposed plant material. A substantial fraction of this organic matter may derive from fine root production (FRP). However, few FRP estimates exist for tropical peatlands, with none from the world’s largest peatland complex in the central Congo Basin. Here we report on FRP using repeat photographs of roots from in situ transparent tubes (minirhizotrons), measured to 1 m depth over three one-month periods (spanning dry to wet seasons), in a palm-dominated peat swamp forest, a hardwood-dominated peat swamp forest, and a terra firme forest. We find FRP of 2.6 ± 0.3 Mg C ha−1 yr−1, 1.9 ± 0.5 Mg C ha−1 yr−1, and 1.7 ± 0.1 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 in the three ecosystem types respectively (mean ± standard error; no significant ecosystem type differences). These estimates fall within the published FRP range worldwide. Furthermore, our hardwood peat swamp estimate is similar to the only other FRP study in tropical peatlands, also hardwood-dominated, from Micronesia. We also found that FRP decreased with depth and was the highest during the dry season. Overall, we show that minirhizotrons can be used as a low-disturbance method to estimate FRP in tropical forests and peatlands.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/R016860/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Aug 2023 15:42 |
Last Modified: | 28 Sep 2023 08:30 |
Published Version: | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38409-x |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41598-023-38409-x |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201703 |