Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:02:32.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nitrogen mineralization and nitrification in terra firme forest and savanna soils on Ilha de Maracá, Roraima, Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

R. H. Marrs ,
J. Thompson ,
D. Scott  and
J. Proctor
R. H. Marrs
Affiliation:
NERC, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Monks Wood Experimental StationAbbots RiptonHuntingdon PE17 2LSEngland
J. Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Biological ScienceUniversity of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland
D. Scott
Affiliation:
Department of Biological ScienceUniversity of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland
J. Proctor
Affiliation:
Department of Biological ScienceUniversity of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Soil mineralization and nitrification rates were measured in (1) undisturbed and felled gaps of varying size in terra firme forest, and (2) along a forest – savanna transect, on Ilha de Maracá in northern Brazil. Both rates were similar to those found in studies of other forests with a marked seasonal rainfall pattern. However, rates were much lower than those of tropical forests where there is little seasonality in rainfall. A major finding was that the highest rates were during the transition between dry and wet seasons, implying that wetting and drying may be an important initiator of soil nitrogen flux. Felling had little effect on either process up to a gap size of 2500 m2. In the forest-savanna study, nitrogen mineralization was lower in the savanna in all seasons, but in the wet season when the savanna soils were water-logged NH4+-N was immobilized. Experimental additions of nutrients identified two important results; first that added NH4+-N was quickly immobilized rather than nitrified – this may be an important nutrient conservation mechanism, and second that soil calcium appeared to be a limiting factor, either directly or through a pH effect.

Keywords

Brazilfelled forestgap-sizenitrificationnitrogen-mineralizationnutrient additionsavannaseasonalityterra firmeundisturbed forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , February 1991 , pp. 123 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Allen, S. E., Grimshaw, H. M., Parkinson, J. A. & Quarmby, C. 1974. Chemical analysis of ecological materials. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.Google Scholar
Jordan, C. F. 1985. Nutrient cycling in tropical forest ecosystems. John Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Jordan, C. F., Caskey, W., Escalante, G., Herrera, R., Montagnini, F., Todd, R. & Uhl, C. 1983. Nitrogen dynamics during conversion of primary Amazonian rainforest to slash and burn agriculture. Oikos 40:131–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marrs, R. H., Proctor, J., Heaney, A. & Mountford, M. D. 1988. Changes in soil nitrogen-mineralization along an altitudinal transect in tropical rain forest in Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology 76:466–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matson, P. A., Vitousek, P. M.,Ewel, J. J., Mazzarino, M. J. & Robertson, G. P. 1987. Nitrogen transformations following tropical forest felling and burning on a volcanic soil. Ecology 68:491–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milliken, W. & Ratter, J. A. 1989. The vegetation of the Ilha de Maracá (First report of the vegetation survey of the Maracá Rainforest Project). Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Montagnini, F. & Buschbacher, R. 1989. Nitrification rales in two undisturbed tropical rain forests and three slash-and-burn sites of the Venezuelan Amazon. Biotropica 21:9–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nortcllf, S. & Robinson, D. 1989. The soils and geomorphology of the Ilha de Maracá, Roraima. Royal Geographical Society, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, G. P. 1984. Nitrification and nitrogen mineralization in a lowland rainforest succession in Costa Rica, Central America. Oecologia 61:99–104Google Scholar
Robertson, G. P. 1989. Nitrification and denitrification in humid tropical ecosystems: potential controls on nitrogen retention. Pp. 55–69 in Proctor, J. (ed.). Mineral nutrients in tropical forest and savanna ecosystems. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.Google Scholar
Robertson, G. P. & Vitousek, P. M. 1981. Nitrification potentials in primary and secondary succession. Ecology 62:376–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SAS 1985. SAS users guide: statistics, version 5 edition. SAS Institute Inc., Cary NC.Google Scholar
Singh, J. S., Raghubanshi, A. S., Singh, R. S. & Srivastave, S. C. 1989. Microbial biomass acts as a source of nutrients in dry tropical savanna. Nature, London 338:499–500.Google Scholar
Swift, M. J., Heal, O. W. & Anderson, J. M. 1979. Decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, E. V. J. 1977. Four montane rain forests of Jamaica: a quantitative characterization of the fioristics, the soils and the foliar mineral levels, and a discussion of their interrelations. Journal of Ecology 65:883–918.Google Scholar
Vitousek, P. M. & Denslow, J. S. 1988. Nitrogen and phosphorus availability in treefall gaps of a lowland tropical rainforest. Journal of Ecology 74:1167–1178.Google Scholar
Vitousek, P. M. & Matson, P. A. 1988. Nitrogen transformations in tropical forest soils. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 20:361–367.Google Scholar
Vitousek, P. M., Van Kleve, K., Balakrichnan, N. & Mueller-Dombois, D. 1983. Soil development and nitrogen turnover in montane rainforest soils on Hawaii. Biotropica 15:268–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar