NPP Tropical Forest: San Carlos De Rio Negro, Venezuela, 1975-1984


[PHOTOGRAPH]
Photograph: Cutting an experimental plot at San Carlos (click on the photo to view a series of images and a diagram of this site)

Data Citation

Cite this data set as follows:

Jordan, C. F., E. Cuevas, and E. Medina. 1999. NPP Tropical Forest: San Carlos de Rio Negro, Venezuela, 1975-1984. 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.

Description

Productivity of tropical forest was determined for a number of vegetation-soil associations at the San Carlos de Rio Negro study site, under the auspices of an international UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) project.

The San Carlos study site (1.93 N 67.05 W) is situated 4 km east of the village of San Carlos in Amazonas Province, Venezuela, 1000 km south of Caracas and close to the common border between Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. Annual rainfall is relatively high at 3565 mm, with low seasonality. Terrain is gently rolling, with hills rising up to 40 m above the lowland (100 m altitude). The sub-sites consist of (i) tierra firme mixed forest on the clay oxisols of the higher ground; (ii) caatinga forest on the coarse sandy spodosols close to river level; (iii) bana or "low caatinga" vegetation on sandy soils less prone to flooding. Although the area is very remote and apparently free from anthropogenic disturbance, there is some evidence of burning around the year 1750.

Climate data are available for 1950-58 and 1970-78 from a government weather station in San Carlos; a water budget and nutrient fluxes have been determined. Biomass and mortality data are mostly available from the period 1975-1983. Annual above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) for the oxisol sub-site has been estimated at 1590 g/m2, including woody biomass increment of 600 g/m2; whilst partial determinations of below-ground NPP range from 201 g/m2 to 1117 g/m2, suggesting a minimum estimate of total NPP from 1800 to 2700 g/m2/year. ANPP of a nearby cut-and-burned oxisol plot attained a maximum of 1940 g/m2 in the fifth year following clearing. In contrast, annual ANPP of caatinga vegetation on the nutrient-poor spodosols has been estimated at 1150 g/m2, with root turnover of 120 g/m2, giving a minimum estimate of total NPP of 1270 g/m2/year.

Contact Information

Contact: Dr. C. F. Jordan
Institute of Ecology
University of Georgia
Athens
Georgia 30602
U.S.A.

Telephone: +1 (706) 542-2968
Fax: +1 (706) 542-6040
E-mail: cfjordan@uga.cc.uga.edu

Alternative Contacts:Dr. E. Cuevas/Dr. E. Medina
Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas
Aptdo. 21827
Caracas 1020-A
VENEZUELA

Telephone: +58 (2) 504-1203
Fax: +58 (2) 504-1088
E-mail: ecuevas@oikos.ivic.ve

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