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Andean grasslands are as productive as tropical cloud forests

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Oliver_2014_ERL_Andean_CC.pdf (637.7Kb)
Date
11/2014
Author
Oliveras, I.
Girardin, C.
Doughty, C. E.
Cahuana, N.
Arenas, C. E.
Oliver, V.
Huasco, W. Huaraca
Malhi, Y.
Funder
NERC
Grant ID
NE/D011191/1
Keywords
Tropical alpine wetlands
Above-ground productivity
Below-ground productivity
Fire
Grazing
Disturbances
Puna
Net primary productivity
Climate-change
Peruvian Andes
Carbon storage
Elevational transect
Human impact
Biomass
Vegetation
Dynamics
GE Environmental Sciences
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Abstract
We aim to assess net primary productivity (NPP) and carbon cycling in Andean tropical alpine grasslands (puna) and compare it with NPP of tropical montane cloud forests. We ask the following questions: (1) how do NPP and soil respiration of grasslands vary over the seasonal cycle? (2) how do burning and grazing affect puna productivity? (3) if the montane forest expands into the puna, what will be the resulting change in productivity? The study sites are located at the South-eastern Peruvian Andes; one grassland site and the forest sites are in Wayqecha biological station, and another grassland site in Manu National Park. At each grassland site, we selected a burnt and an unburnt area, installed unfenced and fenced transects in each area, and monitored above-ground productivity (NPPAG), below-ground productivity (NPPBG) and soil respiration (Rs) for 2 yr. In the forest, we monitored NPPAG, NPPBG and Rs for 2–4 yr. Grassland NPP varied between 4.6 ± 0.25 (disturbed areas) to 15.3 ± 0.9 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 (undisturbed areas) and cloud forest NPP was between 7.05 ± 0.39 and 8.0 ± 0.47 Mg C ha−1 yr−1, while soil carbon stocks were in the range of 126 ± 22 to 285 ± 31 Mg C ha−1. There were no significant differences on NPP between the puna and forest sites. The most undisturbed site had significantly higher NPP than other grassland sites, but no differences were found when relating grazing and fire at other sites. There were lower residence times of above-ground biomass compared to below-ground biomass. There was a strong seasonal signal on grassland NPPAG and NPPBG, with a shift on allocation at the beginning of the austral summer. High elevation tropical grasslands can be as productive as adjacent cloud forests, but have very different carbon cycling and retention properties than cloud forests.
Citation
Oliveras , I , Girardin , C , Doughty , C E , Cahuana , N , Arenas , C E , Oliver , V , Huasco , W H & Malhi , Y 2014 , ' Andean grasslands are as productive as tropical cloud forests ' , Environmental Research Letters , vol. 9 , no. 11 , 115011 . https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/115011
Publication
Environmental Research Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/115011
ISSN
1748-9326
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6009

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