A2.4 Soil trace gas fluxes from tropical montane forest soils
PI(s) for this project:
Abstract:
Trace gas emissions from tropical soils
Description:
Although tropical forest soils are important N2O, NO sources and CH4 sinks, research efforts done in tropical forests are still rather limited and most studies are still heavily biased towards lowland tropical forests. Furthermore there are indications in literature that trace gas fluxes may be linked to phytodiversity through the soil nutrient status. The main goals of this project are: (1) To determine whether at a specific elevation, soil-atmosphere N2O, NO and CH4 fluxes depend on tree diversity and productivity through soil N- and P-availability and how this relation changes with elevation in montane tropical forests. (2) To asses how soil-atmosphere N2O, NO and CH4 fluxes and soil N and P-availability will change in montane tropical forests after N- and P-additions to identify nutrient controls on trace gas exchange at different elevations. We propose to use a combination of measurements of trace gas fluxes and concentrations with isotopic methods and statistical analyses that will be applied on an environmental matrix analysis and on a nutrient manipulation experiment (NUMEX) at three different elevations of montane tropical forest.
