Abstract: The important fertilizing role of atmospheric dust, and particularly African dust, in tropical rainforests is increasingly recognized but still poorly quantified. To better evaluate dust input into the Caribbean basin, we sampled critical zone compartments of a small forested volcanic catchment in Guadeloupe (soils, parent rock, atmospheric dust, plants, soil solutions, stream and rain waters). The aims of this study are to track sources of cation nutrients (Ca, Mg, K, Sr) developed on highly weathered soil in the rainforest of Guadeloupe, to quantify plant recycling of these nutrients, and to identify constraints on regolith development and its associated nutrient pool. In the Quiock Creek catchment, a large isotopic range of 87Sr/86Sr and eNd values was observed despite the small scale of observation. Sr isotopic composition of the dissolved load varied from 0.7084 in rainfall to 0.7110 in soil solution, whereas it ranges between 0.7068 and 0.7153 for soil samples and between 0.7096 and 0.7102 for plants. The Nd isotopic composition varied between -8.39 in near-surface soil samples to 2.71 in deeper soil. All samples had an intermediate signature between that of the bedrock endmember (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7038; eNd = 4.8) and the atmospheric endmember (sea salt: 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7092 and Saharan dust: 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7187, eNd=-11.5). The regolith was built on pyroclastic deposits, but, because of extreme leaching, the regolith has lost its original bedrock signature and inherited an exogenous atmospheric signature. Our results show that only the chemical weathering of the fresh near-surface minerals can provide nutrients to the ecosystem (first 30 cm). However, this dust weathering is too low to sustain the tropical forest ecosystem on its own. The cationic mass balance at the catchment scale, as well as the Sr isotopic signature, show that cation and Sr fluxes are of atmospheric origin only and that original bedrock no longer participates in nutrient cycles. The vegetation reflects the 87Sr/86Sr of the dissolved pool of atmospheric Sr. At the soil-plant scale, the cation-nutrient fluxes provided by vegetation (litter fall + leaf excretion) are major compared to input and output fluxes. The annual Ca, K, Sr and Mg fluxes within the vegetation are, respectively, 31, 28, 20 and 3 times greater than the exported fluxes at the outlet of the basin. The residence time of nutrients in the vegetation is 16 years for K and close to 45 years for Sr, Ca and Mg. These results emphasize the highly efficient vegetative turnover that dominates the nutrient cycle in the Quiock Creek catchment. This first characterization of biogeochemical cycles in the Guadeloupean rainforest suggests that the forest community of Quiock Creek is sustained by a small near-surface nutrient pool disconnected from the deep volcanic bedrock. We also demonstrated that, even with efficient nutrient recycling, Saharan dust plays a significant role in maintaining ecosystem productivity in Guadeloupe over long-time scales.

Abstract: The influence exerted by tree communities, topography, and soil chemistry on the assembly of macrofungal communities remains poorly understood, especially in highly diverse tropical forests. Here, we used a large dataset that combines inventories of macrofungal Basidiomycetes fruiting bodies, tree species composition, and measurements for 16 soil physicochemical parameters, collected in 34 plots located in four sites of lowland rain forests in French Guiana. Plots were established on three different topographical conditions: hilltop, slope, and seasonally flooded soils. We found hyperdiverse Basidiomycetes communities, mainly comprising members of Agaricales and Polyporales. Phosphorus, clay contents, and base saturation in soils strongly varied across plots and shaped the richness and composition of tree communities. The latter composition explained 23% of the variation in the composition of macrofungal communities, probably through high heterogeneity of the litter chemistry and selective effects of biotic interactions. The high local heterogeneity of habitats influenced the distribution of both macrofungi and trees, as a result of diversed local soil hydromorphic conditions associated with contrasting soil chemistry. This first regional study across habitats of French Guiana forests revealed new niches for macrofungi, such as ectomycorrhizal ones, and illustrates how macrofungi inventories are still paramount to can be to understand the processes at work in the tropics. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material. © 2020 The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation

Abstract: Assessing spider diversity remains a great challenge, especially in tropical habitats where dozens of species can locally co-occur. Pitfall trapping is one of the most widely used techniques to collect spiders, but it suffers from several biases, and its accuracy likely varies with habitat complexity. In this study, we compared the efficiency of passive pitfall trapping versus active nocturnal hand collecting (\"HC) to capture low understory-dwelling spider taxonomical (morpho-species) and functional (hunting guilds) diversity along a structural gradient of habitats in French Guiana. We focused on four habitats describing a structural gradient: garden to the orchard to the forest edge to the undisturbed forest. Overall, estimated morpho-species richness and composition did not vary consistently between habitats, but abundances of ground-hunting spiders decreased significantly with increasing habitat complexity. We found habitat-dependence differences in taxonomic diversity between sampling strategies: NHC revealed higher diversity in the orchard, whereas pitfalls resulted in higher diversity in the forest. Species turnover resulted in high dissimilarity in species composition between habitats using either method. This study shows how pitfall trapping is influenced by habitat structure, rendering this sampling method incomplete for complex, tropical environments. However, pitfall traps remain a valuable component of inventories because they sample distinct assemblage of spiders. © 2020 by the authors.

Abstract: Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come. © 2020, The Author(s).

Abstract: Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.