Journal Article

Climate seasonality limits leaf carbon assimilation and wood productivity in tropical forests

Longhi Santos, Tomaz, Castro, Wendeson, Fedele, Marcio, Toledo, Marcos Miranda, Chidumayo, Emmanuel N., Toledo, Marisol, Galvão, Franklin, Franco, Augusto César, Couralet, Camille, Malhi, Yadvinder, Gebrekirstos, Aster, Becker, Gabriel Sebastian, Graça, Paulo Maurício Lima de Alencastro, Drew, David M., Figueiredo Filho, Afonso, Toledo, José Julio, Lisi, Claudio Sergio, Lieberman, Diana, Hérault, Bruno, Camargo, Plínio Barbosa, Bowman, David M. J. S., Guan, Kaiyu, Brede, Benjamin, Kho, Lip Khoon, López Ayala, José Luis, Finger, César Augusto Guimarães, Maza Chamba, Hector, Mbwambo, Lawrence, de Castro, Vinicius Resende, da Silva Mauricio, Paulo Henrique, Pélissier, Raphaël, Bräuning, Achim, de Oliveira, Edilson Consuelo, Lieberman, Milton Eugene, Chave, Jérome, Brown, Foster Irving, Lemos-Filho, José Pires, Carvalho, Fabrício Alvim, Freitas Júnior, João Lima, Durigan, Giselda, Cardoso, Fernanda C. G., Krepkowski, Julia, Elifuraha, Elisha, Silveira, Marcos, Silva, Williamar Rodrigues, O'Brien, Joseph J., Toma, Takeshi, Valdez Hernández, Juan Ignacio, Selhorst, Diogo, Schulze, Mark, An

2016

Overview

The seasonal climate drivers of the carbon cycle in tropical forests remain poorly known, although these forests account for more carbon assimilation and storage than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Based on a unique combination of seasonal pan-tropical data sets from 89 experimental sites (68 include aboveground wood productivity measurements and 35 litter productivity measurements), their associated canopy photosynthetic capacity (enhanced vegetation index, EVI) and climate, we ask how carbon assimilation and aboveground allocation are related to climate seasonality in tropical forests and how they interact in the seasonal carbon cycle. We found that canopy photosynthetic capacity seasonality responds positively to precipitation when rainfall is  < 2000 mm yr−1 (water-limited forests) and to radiation otherwise (light-limited forests). On the other hand, independent of climate limitations, wood productivity and litterfall are driven by seasonal variation in precipitation and evapotranspiration, respectively. Consequently, light-limited forests present an asynchronism between canopy photosynthetic capacity and wood productivity. First-order control by precipitation likely indicates a decrease in tropical forest productivity in a drier climate in water-limited forest, and in current light-limited forest with future rainfall  < 2000 mm yr−1.

• Publisher: Copernicus GmbH,European Geosciences Union,Copernicus Publications
• Subject: Agricultural sciences / Assimilation / Atmospheric precipitations / Biological assimilation / Biomass / Canopies / Canopy / Capacity / Carbon / Carbon cycle / Carbon fixation / Climate / Climate and vegetation / Climatic indexes / Datasets / Ecology, environment / Ecosystems / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES / Evapotranspiration / Forest productivity / Forests / GEOSCIENCES / Laboratorium voor Geo-informatiekunde en remote sensing / Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing / Life Sciences / Light / Litter fall / PE&RC / Photosynthesis / Precipitation / Precipitation variability / Precipitation variations / Productivity / Radiation / Rain / Rainfall / Seasonal variation / Seasonal variations / Seasonality / Silviculture, forestry / Storage / Terrestrial ecosystems / Time series / Trees / Tropical climate / Tropical climates / Tropical forests / Vegetation index / Wood