Babassu palm ( Attalea speciosa Mart.) super-dominance shapes its surroundings via multiple biotic, soil chemical, and p
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Babassu palm (Attalea speciosa Mart.) super-dominance shapes its surroundings via multiple biotic, soil chemical, and physical interactions and accumulates soil carbon: a case study in eastern Amazonia Christoph Gehring & Marcelo Correa Zelarayán & Ronildson Lima Luz & Rosângela Borges Almeida & Robert Michael Boddey & Márcio Fernandes Alves Leite
Received: 24 September 2019 / Accepted: 23 May 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Aims Aggressive ruderal plant species pose an increasing problem in anthropically degraded lands. They both affect and are affected by other vegetation and by soil fertility in their surroundings. This study explores the case of the babassu palm (Attalea speciosa Mart., Arecaceae), which attains high dominance especially in frequently burned degraded lands throughout former Amazonia. We
Responsible Editor: Michael Luke McCormack Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04580-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. C. Gehring (*) : R. L. Luz : M. F. A. Leite Agroecology Program of Maranhão State University – UEMA, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] M. C. Zelarayán Education and Environment – EMA, Pirapemas, Maranhão, Brazil R. B. Almeida Municipal Secretary of Education – SEMED, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil
sought to understand the extent to which babassu palms affect their surroundings. Methods We investigated the interrelationships between different components within the plant-soil continuum, from aboveground vegetation and litter-layer to topsoil (0–5 and 5–15 cm) soil organic matter fractions, and soil physical (texture, porosity, density) and chemical (pH, nutrient contents and topsoil carbon stocks) characteristics. We developed a case-study in two secondary forests in different stages (3 year.-old and 20 year.-old) and sampled 12 plots in each, covering a wide range of babassu biomass proportions (0.3–98.7% of total aboveground biomass). Results Babassu sequesters soil carbon, as indicated by the significantly higher C:N-ratio in the litter-layer, higher concentration of low-density (labile) organic matter, higher C-concentrations in labile SOM, and an overall increase in belowground C-stocks. The babassu palm decreases aboveground-belowground complexity by building stronger interactions via changes in the litter layer and in SOM-fractions. Conclusions Our results indicate that single-species dominance can centralize ecosystem interactions to favor the dominant species and that guaranteeing high species diversity and sequestering carbon may constitute mutually exclusive management objectives.
R. M. Boddey Embrapa Agrobiology, Seropédica, Brazil M. F. A. Leite Department of Microbial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology NIOO-KNAW, Wageningen, Netherlands
Keywords Carbon sequestration . Litter layer . Plantsoil interactions . Ruderal palm . Soil organic matter . Super-dominance
Plant Soil
Introduction Invasive exot
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