The importance of wood nutrient storage in tropical forest nitrogen and phosphorus cycles: Insights from a sapling defoliation experiment in Panama

Abstract:

The availability of soil nutrients limits productivity and influences tree species distribution in tropical forests. Given the scarcity of soil resources, trees in tropical forests should be under selection to store nutrients for periods when nutrient demand exceeds supply. However, little is known about the capacity of trees to remobilize nutrients from long-lived woody biomass in tropical forests, despite wood sequestering a large proportion of bioavailable nutrients in tropical ecosystems. We evaluated nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) remobilization from woody biomass via experimental defoliation of saplings from four widely distributed genera of tropical trees in Panama. Focal saplings were sampled in high and low fertility habitats in both montane and lowland forests to maximize contrast in the availability and identity of limiting nutrients. N and P concentrations of stem wood were measured before defoliation and after subsequent re-foliation response to calculate wood remobilization efficiency. Initial wood P concentrations differed significantly within taxa between low and high fertility habitats, whereas initial wood N differed significantly within taxa between lowland and montane forests, but not among soil fertility habitats. In three of four genera studied, wood P concentrations declined after refoliation at both elevations, and the proportion of wood P remobilized was greater on low fertility compared to high fertility sites. In contrast, significant N remobilization was restricted to the low fertility montane site, where nitrogen is most likely to limit plant growth. These findings provide evidence that a significant fraction of N and P in woody biomass is can be remobilized in response to asymmetry in nutrient supply and demand, as opposed consisting primarily of recalcitrant structural material. Furthermore, variation in remobilization responses of species to defoliation provides additional evidence that multiple nutrient-limitation in tropical forests may be driven by functional differences among tree taxa in resource acquisition and allocation.