Abstract ID: 323

Soil respiration and soil organisms biodiversity on a forest transect covering a change in elevation of 3 km, in Andean and lowland Peru.

Tropical ecosystems play key global roles in terms of both ecosystem functioning and biodiversity maintenance. Although climatic change might increase the living biomass in tropical forest, its influence on the decomposition of soil organic matter could offset current CO2 uptake. Associated changes in biodiversity in soil organisms could also change under warming with potential effects on ecosystem-scale processing of carbon and nutrients. Altitudinal gradients offer the unique possibility to study the influence of climatic conditions on carbon and biodiversity in ecosystems in situ. We took intact soil cores at 3030 m, 1700 m, 900 m, and 220 m asl along an altitudinal gradient in a forested valley in Peru and exchanged them among these sites in a translocation experimient to observe the influence of altered temperatures on soil carbon decomposition under actual climatic conditions. We report on the impact of warming on decomposition and on first observations of altitudinal variation in soil organism biodiversity. We discuss the potential for integrating these analyses and developing new ecological understanding.

Session:  Biodiversity - Permanent plot networks for inventory of biodiversity and carbon stocks: integrating taxonomic and ecosystem objectives.

Presentation Type:  Oral