Journal
ECOSYSTEMS
Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 284-294Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10021-012-9612-5
Keywords
phosphorus; parent material; topography; Puerto Rico; state factors
Categories
Funding
- Andrew Mellon Foundation
- NSF [DEB 0918387, EAR 0722476]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [0918387] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Earth Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [0722476] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Phosphorus (P) availability in terrestrial ecosystems depends on soil age, climate, parent material, topographic position, and biota, but the relative importance of these drivers has not been assessed. To ask which factor has the strongest influence on long- and short-timescale metrics of P availability, we sampled soils across a full-factorial combination of two parent materials [quartz diorite (QD) and volcaniclastic (VC)], three topographic positions (ridge, slope, and valley), and across 550 m in elevation in 17 sub-watersheds of the Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico. VC rocks had double the P content of QD (600 vs. 300 ppm; P < 0.0001), and soil P was similarly approximately 2x higher in VC-derived soils (P < 0.0001). Parent material also explained the most variance in our two other long-timescale metrics of P status: the fraction of recalcitrant P (56% variance explained) and the loss of P relative to parent material (35% variance explained), both of which were higher on VC-derived soils (P < 0.0001 for both). Topographic position explained an additional 10-15% of the variance in these metrics. In contrast, there was no parent material effect on the more labile NaHCO3- and NaOH-extractable P soil pools, which were approximately 2.5x greater in valleys than on ridges (P < 0.0001). Taken together, these data suggest that the relative importance of different state factors varies depending on the ecosystem property of interest and that parent material and topography can play sub-equal roles in driving differences in ecosystem P status across landscapes.
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