Search

Aim: Tropical forests store 25% of global carbon and harbour 96% of the world's tree species, but it is not clear whether this high biodiversity matters for carbon storage. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of forest attributes and environmental drivers for ecosystem functioning, and no such study exists for the tropics. Location: Neotropics. Methods: We relate aboveground biomass (AGB) to forest attributes (diversity and structure) and environmental drivers (annual rainfall and soil fertility) using data from 144,000 trees, 2050 forest plots and 59 forest sites. The sites span the complete latitudinal and climatic gradients in the lowland Neotropics, with rainfall ranging from 750 to 4350 mm year−1. Relationships were analysed within forest sites at scales of 0.1 and 1 ha and across forest sites along large-scale environmental gradients. We used a structural equation model to test the hypothesis that species richness, forest structural attributes and environmental drivers have independent, positive effects on AGB. Results: Across sites, AGB was most strongly driven by rainfall, followed by average tree stem diameter and rarefied species richness, which all had positive effects on AGB. Our indicator of soil fertility (cation exchange capacity) had a negligible effect on AGB, perhaps because we used a global soil database. Taxonomic forest attributes (i.e. species richness, rarefied richness and Shannon diversity) had the strongest relationships with AGB at small spatial scales, where an additional species can still make a difference in terms of niche complementarity, while structural forest attributes (i.e. tree density and tree size) had strong relationships with AGB at all spatial scales. Main conclusions: Biodiversity has an independent, positive effect on AGB and ecosystem functioning, not only in relatively simple temperate systems but also in structurally complex hyperdiverse tropical forests. Biodiversity conservation should therefore be a key component of the UN Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation strategy.

Understanding and accurately predicting the fate of carbon and nitrogen in the terrestrial biosphere remains a central goal in ecosystem science. Amino acids represent a key pool of C and N in soil, and their availability to plants and microorganisms has been implicated as a major driver in regulating ecosystem functioning. Because of potential differences in biological diversity and litter quality, it has been thought that soils from different latitudes and plant communities may possess intrinsically different capacities to perform key functions such as the turnover of amino acids. In this study we measured the soil solution concentration and microbial mineralization of amino acids in soils collected from 40 latitudinal points from the Arctic through to Antarctica. Our results showed that soil solution amino acid concentrations were relatively similar between sites and not strongly related to latitude. In addition, when constraints of temperature and moisture were removed, we demonstrate that soils worldwide possess a similar innate capacity to rapidly mineralize amino acids. Similarly, we show that the internal partitioning of amino acid-C into catabolic and anabolic processes is conservative in microbial communities and independent of global position. This supports the view that the conversion of high molecular weight ( MW) organic matter to low MW compounds is the rate limiting step in organic matter breakdown in most ecosystems.