TY - JOUR
T1 - Soil and species effects on bark nutrient storage in a premontane tropical forest
AU - Jones, Jennifer M.
AU - Heineman, Katherine D.
AU - Dalling, James W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Background and aims Bark contains a substantial fraction of the nutrients stored in woody biomass, however the degree of functional coordination of bark, wood, and foliar nutrient pools, and its relationship to soil nutrient availability remains poorly understood. Methods Bark thickness and nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium concentrations were measured in 23 tree species present in two premontane wet tropical forests in western Panama differing in soil nutrient availability. Bark data were combined with existing wood and leaf data from the same species. Results Bark nutrients were positively correlated with leaf and wood nutrients for all elements. The low fertility site had both lower bark nutrient concentrations and thicker bark, driven primarily by species compositional differences between sites, and secondarily by intraspecific variation. Across species, bark nutrient concentration varied 4 to 25 fold, with the highest variation for calcium. Overall, bark accounted for the largest percent of Ca in above-ground biomass nutrient pools (22-82%) and a large fraction of the other nutrients studied (N: 6- 53%, P: 5-50%, K: 4-40%, and Mg: 2-35%). Conclusions Bark represents a substantial, and highly variable, pool of biomass nutrients. The functional role of bark nutrients, the causes and consequences of this variation, and its relation to other bark traits, including bark thickness, deserve further study.
AB - Background and aims Bark contains a substantial fraction of the nutrients stored in woody biomass, however the degree of functional coordination of bark, wood, and foliar nutrient pools, and its relationship to soil nutrient availability remains poorly understood. Methods Bark thickness and nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium concentrations were measured in 23 tree species present in two premontane wet tropical forests in western Panama differing in soil nutrient availability. Bark data were combined with existing wood and leaf data from the same species. Results Bark nutrients were positively correlated with leaf and wood nutrients for all elements. The low fertility site had both lower bark nutrient concentrations and thicker bark, driven primarily by species compositional differences between sites, and secondarily by intraspecific variation. Across species, bark nutrient concentration varied 4 to 25 fold, with the highest variation for calcium. Overall, bark accounted for the largest percent of Ca in above-ground biomass nutrient pools (22-82%) and a large fraction of the other nutrients studied (N: 6- 53%, P: 5-50%, K: 4-40%, and Mg: 2-35%). Conclusions Bark represents a substantial, and highly variable, pool of biomass nutrients. The functional role of bark nutrients, the causes and consequences of this variation, and its relation to other bark traits, including bark thickness, deserve further study.
KW - Bark thickness
KW - Biomass nutrient budget
KW - Leaves
KW - Nutrient allocation
KW - Plant organ nutrient concentrations
KW - Wood
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U2 - 10.1007/s11104-019-04026-9
DO - 10.1007/s11104-019-04026-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063200761
SN - 0032-079X
VL - 438
SP - 347
EP - 360
JO - Plant and Soil
JF - Plant and Soil
IS - 1-2
ER -