Inter-annual Variability of Aboveground Net Primary Productivity in Regenerating Tropical Dry Forests

Abstract:

Globally, there are now more secondary forests regenerating following anthropogenic disturbance than primary forests. However, carbon dynamics in secondary tropical forests in general, and seasonally dry forests in particular, have not been as well studied as primary wet forests. Young, regenerating forests may be more sensitive to climatic variability than older forests because of their dynamic demographic rates. Similarly, seasonally dry tropical forests may be particularly sensitive to changes in precipitation, as tree growth is highly constrained by water availability.

We examined how inter-annual variability in precipitation affected above-ground net primary productivity in chronosequences of dry forest in Costa Rica. Our sites included three forest cover types, whose distribution is linked to edaphic variation. Over our 6-yr dataset, annual rainfall varied from 1110 to 3040mm, with a 5-6 month dry season. ANPP ranged from 2.96 to 18.98 Mg ha^-1 across sites that have been recovering for 7 to 67 years. Fine litter production dominated ANPP, and increased with forest age but not annual rainfall. By contrast, woody stem growth did not vary among forests that differed in age, but increased as a function of annual rainfall. These results differed by forest type. Lowland oak forests on low fertility soil had the lowest productivity and responses to rainfall, whereas forests on the highest fertility soils showed large increases in woody production with rainfall. Consistent with our expectation, younger forests on the intermediate soil type had higher variability in ANPP than older forests, but this was not significant for forests on the poor or high fertility soils. Our results highlight several important findings: 1) different components of ANPP vary in their responses to inter-annual variation in rainfall, 2) forest responses to climatic variability depend on species composition, which varies consistently with soil type in this landscape.