Nutrient Cycling in Moist Tropical Forest
Nutrient Cycling in Moist Tropical Forest
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DOI：
10.1146/annurev.es.17.110186.001033
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发表时间：
1986
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
P. Vitousek;R. Sanford
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Vitousek;R. Sanford
早期对潮湿热带森林养分循环的研究描述了营养丰富的生产性森林(98、114、176)，其中初级生产量和养分循环量明显超过温带森林。对生物量、生产和养分循环的全球规模模式的审查报告了这些结果，作为热带森林的代表(130,175)。与此同时，热带森林土壤被描述为酸性、贫瘠的粘土，在清除后不可逆转地硬化为“红土”(106)，或者被描述为漂白的低矿物质营养的石英砂(88)。这一明显的悖论是由Whittaker(174)在“热带雨林因此具有相对丰富的营养经济栖息在营养贫乏的底物上”(第271页)一文中阐明的。回顾最近对热带矿物循环的总体模式(78,124)以及重要组成部分，如生物量(20，21)、凋落物养分(123,164)和分解(5)的研究，清楚地表明，热带森林的养分循环模式是多样的。描述“典型的”热带森林并不比“典型的”温带森林更有意义(33,151)。然而，在热带森林中，矿物循环的变化遵循连贯的、可解释的模式。我们进行这项审查的目的是：(A)说明潮湿热带森林的养分循环模式；(B)确定调节这些模式的机制；(C)说明这些模式如何影响热带森林的生产力、生理学和种群生物学，以及它们与水生生态系统和大气的大范围联系。我们强调氮、磷、钾、钙和镁的循环；这些是研究最充分的土壤衍生养分，也是最有可能限制初级生产力和其他生态系统功能的养分。
Early studies of nutrient cycling in moist tropical forests described productive forests rich in nutrients (98, 114, 176) in which rates of primary production and the amounts of nutrients cycled clearly exceeded those in temperate zone forests. Reviews of global-scale patterns in biomass, production, and nutrient cycling reported these results as representative of tropical forests (130, 175). At the same time, tropical forest soils were described as acid, infertile clays that harden irreversibly to "laterite" when cleared (106), or as bleached quartz sands low in mineral nutrients (88). This apparent paradox was crystallized by Whittaker (174) in the statement "The tropical rain forest thus has a relatively rich nutrient economy perched on a nutrient-poor substrate" (p. 271). Reviews of more recent research on overall patterns of mineral cycling in the tropics (78, 124), and of important components such as biomass (20, 21), litterfall nutrients (123, 164), and decomposition (5), clearly show that patterns of nutrient cycling in tropical forests are diverse. It makes no more sense to describe a 'typical' tropical forest than a 'typical' temperate forest (33, 151). Variations in mineral cycling nonetheless follow coherent, explicable patterns in tropical forests. Our purposes in undertaking this review are: (a) to illustrate the patterns of nutrient cycling in moist tropical forests; (b) to identify the mechanisms which regulate those patterns; and (c) to show how those patterns affect the productivity, physiology, and population biology of tropical forests and their large-scale linkages with aquatic ecosystems and the atmosphere. We emphasize the cycling of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium; these are the best-studied soil-derived nutrients, and they are the nutrients most likely to limit primary production and other ecosystem functions.