『Summary
The productivity of tropical lowland moist forests is often considered
to be limited by the availability of phosphorus. Organic phosphorus
is often abundant in tropical soils, but its role in forest nutrition
is largely unknown. We addressed this by using a large-scale litter
manipulation experiment to investigate the stability of soil organic
phosphorus in a tropical lowland forest in Central Panama. Three
years of litter removal reduced the organic phosphorus concentration
in the surface 2 cm of mineral soil by 23%, as determined by NaOH-EDTA
extraction and 31P-NMR spectroscopy; this included
decreases in phosphate monoesters (20%) and DNA (30%). Three years
of litter addition (equivalent to adding 6 kg P ha-1
per year) increased soil organic phosphorus by 16%, which included
a 31% increase in DNA. We did not detect higher-order inositol
phosphates, despite their abundance in mineral soils of temperate
ecosystems. Our observed turnover rate suggests that even the
0 - 2-cm layer of the mineral soil contributes a fifth of the
total phosphorus needed to sustain above-ground growth in this
forest. Soil organic phosphorus is thus likely to make a more
important contribution to the nutrition of semi-evergreen forest
plants than has hitherto been acknowledged.』
Introduction
Materials and methods
Study area
Gigante Litter Manipulation Project
Soil sampling and preparation
Solution 31P NMR spectroscopy
Other chemical analyses
Statistical analysis
Results
Phosphorus fractions
Phosphorus composition determined by solution 31P
NMR spectroscopy
Total soil carbon and nitrogen
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References