Carbon isotopic signatures of soil organic matter correlate with leaf area index across woody biomes

• Autores: Ladd, Brenton; Peri, Pablo Luis; Pepper, David A.; Silva, Lucas C.R.; Sheil, Douglas; Bonser, Stephen P.; Laffan, Shawn W.; Amelung, Wulf; Ekblad, Alf; Eliasson, Peter; Bahamonde, Héctor Alejandro; Duarte Guardia, Sandra; Bird, Michael I.
• Año de publicación: 2014
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Journal of Ecology 102 (6) : 1606-1611 (November 2014)
• Materia: Materia Orgánica del Suelo; Carbono; Isótopos; Índice de Superficie Foliar; Plantas Leñosas; Soil Organic Matter; Carbon; Isotopes; Leaf Area Index; Woody Plants
• Institución: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria

Leaf area index (LAI), a measure of canopy density, is a key variable for modelling and understanding primary productivity, and also water use and energy exchange in forest ecosystems. However, LAI varies considerably with phenology and disturbance patterns, so alternative approaches to quantifying stand‐level processes should be considered. The carbon isotope composition of soil organic matter (δ13CSOM) provides a time‐integrated, productivity‐weighted measure of physiological and stand‐level processes, reflecting biomass deposition from seasonal to decadal time scales. Our primary aim was to explore how well LAI correlates with δ13CSOM across biomes. Using a global data set spanning large environmental gradients in tropical, temperate and boreal forest and woodland, we assess the strength of the correlation between LAI and δ13CSOM; we also assess climatic variables derived from the WorldClim database. We found that LAI was strongly correlated with δ13CSOM, but was also correlated with Mean Temperature of the Wettest Quarter, Mean Precipitation of Warmest Quarter and Annual Solar Radiation across and within biomes. Synthesis. Our results demonstrate that δ13CSOM values can provide spatially explicit estimates of leaf area index (LAI) and could therefore serve as a surrogate for productivity and water use. While δ13CSOM has traditionally been used to reconstruct the relative abundance of C3 versus C4 species, the results of this study demonstrate that within stable C3‐ or C4‐dominated biomes, δ13CSOM can provide additional insights. The fact that LAI is strongly correlated to δ13CSOM may allow for a more nuanced interpretation of ecosystem properties of palaeoecosystems based on palaeosol 13C values.
EEA Santa Cruz
Fil: Ladd, Brenton. Universidad Científica del Sur. Escuela de Agroforestería; Peru. University of New South Wales. School of Biological. Earth and Environmental Sciences, Evolution and Ecology Research Centre; Australia
Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Pepper, David A. University of New South Wales. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences; Australia.
Fil: Silva, Lucas C.R. University of California. Department of Land, Air and Water Resources; Estados Unidos
Fil: Sheil, Douglas. Southern Cross University. School of Environmental Science and Management; Australia. Center for International Forestry Research; Indonesia. Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management; Noruega
Fil: Bonser, Stephen P. University of New South Wales. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Evolution and Ecology Research Centre; Australia
Fil: Laffan, Shawn W. University of New South Wales. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences; Australia
Fil: Amelung, Wulf. University of Bonn. Soil Science and Soil Ecology. Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES); Alemania
Fil: Ekblad, Alf. Örebro University. School of Science and Technology; Suecia
Fil: Eliasson, Peter. Örebro University. School of Science and Technology; Suecia. Lund University. Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science; Suecia
Fil: Bahamonde, Héctor Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Duarte Guardia, Sandra. Universidad Científica del Sur. Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales; Perú
Fil: Bird, Michael I. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Department of Ecology; Suecia. James Cook University. College of Science, Technology and Engineering and Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science; Australia