Folster, H. 1999. NPP Tropical Forest: Magdalena Valley, Colombia, 1970-1971. Data set. Available on-line [http://www.daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Of primary interest were biomass and nutrient dynamics of a forest stand that had developed atop a perched water table on a typical valley terrace. Perched water tables give rise to pseudogley soils with low pH, prolonged periods of saturation, low nutrient status, reduced rooting depth, and small exploitable volume. The resulting forest is of relatively low biomass and stature, with frequent windthrow and mortality, and few older trees. A constrasting forest stand on a lower slope site, which had developed under more advantageous soil and water conditions, was included for comparison.
The Magdalena Valley study site (6.39 N 73.56 W) was located 50 km south of the town of Barranca Bermeja, about 200 km north of Bogota. Annual rainfall for the region is around 3000 mm, with maximum amounts being received in May and during October/November. Vegetation was harvested on a 50 x 50 m plot in 1970 and on an adjacent 50 x 40 m plot in 1971.
The two sub-sites differed markedly in basal area (22 m2/ha terrace forest; 32 m2/ha slope forest). Total litterfall, measured over a 12-15 month period, was 1202 g/m2/yr for the terrace forest and 873 g/m2/yr for the slope forest, giving a minimun estimate of above-ground net primary productivity.
Climate data are available for Barranca Bermeja (7.00 N 73.80 W).
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