TY  - JOUR
AU  - Van Langenhove, Leandro
AU  - Depaepe, Thomas
AU  - Verryckt, Lore T.
AU  - Fuchslueger, Lucia
AU  - Donald, Julian
AU  - Celine, Leroy
AU  - Krishna Moorthy, Sruthi M.
AU  - Gargallo-Garriga, Albert
AU  - Farnon Ellwood, M. D.
AU  - Verbeeck, Hans
AU  - Van Der Straeten, Dominique
AU  - Penuelas, Josep
AU  - Janssens, Ivan A.
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Comparable canapy and soil free living nitrogen fixation rates in e lowland tropical forest
JO  - Science of the total environment
VL  - 754
PB  - Elsevier
KW  - Biodiversité
KW  - Systématique
KW  - phylogénie
KW  - taxonomie
KW  - Ecologie
KW  - Environnement
KW  - Ecosystèmes
KW  - Biologie végétale
KW  - Botanique
N2  - Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a fundamental part of nitrogen cycling in tropical forests, yet little is known about the contribution made by free-living nitrogen fixers inhabiting the often-extensive forest canopy. We used the acetylene reduction assay, calibrated with 15N2, to measure free-living BNF on forest canopy leaves, vascular epiphytes, bryophytes and canopy soil, as well as on the forest floor in leaf litter and soil. We used a combination of calculated and published component densities to upscale free-living BNF rates to the forest level. We found that bryophytes and leaves situated in the canopy in particular displayed high mass-based rates of free-living BNF. Additionally, we calculated that nearly 2 kg of nitrogen enters the forest ecosystem through free-living BNF every year, 40% of which was fixed by the various canopy components. Our results reveal that in the studied tropical lowland forest a large part of the nitrogen input through free-living BNF stems from the canopy, but also that the total nitrogen inputs by free-living BNF are lower than previously thought and comparable to the inputs of reactive nitrogen by atmospheric deposition.
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142202
N1  - exported from refbase (http://php.ecofog.gf/refbase/show.php?record=1006), last updated on Tue, 19 Jul 2022 11:20:36 -0300
ID  - VanLangenhove_etal2021
ER  -