Effect of pasture age on soil trace-gas emissions from a deforested area of Costa Rica

Keller, Michael; Veldkamp, Edzo; Weitz, A.; Reiners, William A.

doi:10.1038/365244a0

Cited by 231 publications

(139 citation statements)

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“…b Modeled for sub-Saharan Africa after Bouwman et al (2002), N input in agroecosystems derived by Potter et al (2010), Edgar 4.1 data for natural emissions from countries of North Africa, based on IPCC methodology (Hickman et al, 2011). c empirical equation base on published data (Keller, 1993;Weitz et al, 1998;Verchot et al, 1999;Potter et al, 2001;Melillo et al, 2001;Neill et al, 2005;Verchot et al, 2006;Mapanda et al, 2010). wetlands and saturated soils, anaerobic hotspots in unsaturated soils, mostly associated to organic input and intense mineralization activity.…”

Section: N 2 O and Ch 4 Fluxes From Biogenic Sources And Firesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A full greenhouse gases budget of Africa: synthesis, uncertainties, and vulnerabilities

et al. 2014

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Abstract. This paper, developed under the framework of the RECCAP initiative, aims at providing improved estimates of the carbon and GHG (CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O) balance of continental Africa. The various components and processes of the African carbon and GHG budget are considered, existing data reviewed, and new data from different methodologies (inventories, ecosystem flux measurements, models, and atmospheric inversions) presented. Uncertainties are quantified and current gaps and weaknesses in knowledge and monitoring systems described in order to guide future requirements. The majority of results agree that Africa is a small sink of carbon on an annual scale, with an average value of Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. R. Valentini et al.: A full greenhouse gases budget of Africa−0.61 ± 0.58 Pg C yr −1 . Nevertheless, the emissions of CH 4 and N 2 O may turn Africa into a net source of radiative forcing in CO 2 equivalent terms. At sub-regional level, there is significant spatial variability in both sources and sinks, due to the diversity of biomes represented and differences in the degree of anthropic impacts. Southern Africa is the main source region; while central Africa, with its evergreen tropical forests, is the main sink. Emissions from land-use change in Africa are significant (around 0.32 ± 0.05 Pg C yr −1 ), even higher than the fossil fuel emissions: this is a unique feature among all the continents. There could be significant carbon losses from forest land even without deforestation, resulting from the impact of selective logging. Fires play a significant role in the African carbon cycle, with 1.03 ± 0.22 Pg C yr −1 of carbon emissions, and 90 % originating in savannas and dry woodlands. A large portion of the wild fire emissions are compensated by CO 2 uptake during the growing season, but an uncertain fraction of the emission from wood harvested for domestic use is not. Most of these fluxes have large interannual variability, on the order of ±0.5 Pg C yr −1 in standard deviation, accounting for around 25 % of the year-toyear variation in the global carbon budget.Despite the high uncertainty, the estimates provided in this paper show the important role that Africa plays in the global carbon cycle, both in terms of absolute contribution, and as a key source of interannual variability.

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Section: N 2 O and Ch 4 Fluxes From Biogenic Sources And Firesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A full greenhouse gases budget of Africa: synthesis, uncertainties, and vulnerabilities

et al. 2014

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“…The emissions of N 2 O and NO from soil into the atmosphere are byproducts of nitrification and denitrification (Firestone and Davidson, 1989;Granli and Bockman, 1994), which are controlled, in turn, by many factors including N availability, the quality and quantity of soil organic matter (which serves as energy source for most microbial processes), soil texture, pH, soil microbial activity, soil moisture, soil aeration and soil temperature. These soil variables are proximal controls of the processes which, in turn, are affected by management practices such as fertilization, cultivation and shifting land use (Robertson, 1989;Keller et al, 1993).…”

Section: Nitrogen Oxide Fluxes From Tropical Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of nitrous oxide and nitric oxide emissions from tropical primary forests in the Costa Rican Atlantic Zone

Liu

Reiners

Keller

et al. 2000

Environmental Modelling & Software

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Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and nitric oxide (NO) are important atmospheric trace gases participating in the regulation of global climate and environment. Predictive models on the emissions of N 2 O and NO emissions from soil into the atmosphere are required. We modified the CENTURY model (Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 51 (1987) 1173) to simulate the emissions of N 2 O and NO from tropical primary forests in the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica at a monthly time step. Combined fluxes of N 2 O and NO were simulated as a function of gross N mineralization and water-filled pore space (WFPS). The coefficients for partitioning N 2 O from NO were derived from field measurements (Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 8 (1994) 399). The modified CENTURY was calibrated against observations of carbon stocks in various pools of forest ecosystems of the region, and measured WFPS and emission rates of N 2 O and NO from soil to the atmosphere.WFPS is an important factor regulating nutrient cycling and emissions of N2O and NO from soils making the accuracy of the WFPS prediction central to the modeling process. To do this, we modified the hydrologic submodel and developed a new method for the prediction of WFPS at the monthly scale from daily rainfall information. The new method is based on: (1) the relationship between monthly rainfall and the number of rainfall events, and (2) the relative cumulative frequency distribution of ranked daily rainfall events. The method is generic and should be applicable to other areas.Simulated monthly average WFPS was 0.68±0.02 -identical with the field measurement average of 0.68±0.02 from the annual cycle observed by Keller and Reiners (Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 8 (1994) . The simulated N 2 O/NO ratio was 11.2±1.9 compared with the measured value of 10.9±4.7. WFPS is the dominant determinant of the fraction of gross N mineralization that is emitted from the soil as N 2 O and NO. If WFPS were not limiting during part of the year, this fraction would be 4.2%. With some periods of lower WFPS, the realized fraction is 2.2%. Because of the strong relationships between N 2 O and NO emission rates and rainfall and its derivative, WFPS, these moisture variables can be used to scale up nitrogen trace gas fluxes from sites to larger spatial scales.

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“…Conversion of tropical forest to agricultural land use causes a reduction in soil CH 4 uptake or even turns the soil into a source of CH 4 . Often this trend is explained by soil compaction, which leads to reduced gas diffusivity and accordingly limits aerobic CH 4 oxidation while enhancing anaerobic CH 4 production (Keller et al, 1993;Veldkamp et al, 2008). Changes in N availability may also play a role since CH 4 uptake may be N limited (Bodelier and Laanbroek, 2004;Veldkamp et al, 2013) and high concentrations of ammonium (NH…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, forest conversion is often associated with increases in soil bulk density. These dynamic changes in soil fertility and soil bulk density following forest conversion do not only affect agricultural production but also the soil-atmosphere exchange of trace gases like carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) since their production, consumption and exchange are directly related to soil fertility and soil bulk density (Keller et al, 1993;Veldkamp et al, 2008).…”

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Soil fertility controls soil–atmosphere carbon dioxide and methane fluxes in a tropical landscape converted from lowland forest to rubber and oil palm plantations

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Expansion of palm oil and rubber production, for which global demand is increasing, causes rapid deforestation in Sumatra, Indonesia, and is expected to continue in the next decades. Our study aimed to (1) quantify changes in soil CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes with land-use change and (2) determine their controlling factors. In Jambi Province, Sumatra, we selected two landscapes on heavily weathered soils that differ mainly in texture: loam and clay Acrisol soils. In each landscape, we investigated the reference land-use types (forest and secondary forest with regenerating rubber) and the converted land-use types (rubber, 7-17 years old, and oil palm plantations, 9-16 years old). We measured soil CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes monthly from December 2012 to December 2013. Annual soil CO 2 fluxes from the reference land-use types were correlated with soil fertility: low extractable phosphorus (P) coincided with high annual CO 2 fluxes from the loam Acrisol soil that had lower fertility than the clay Acrisol soil (P < 0.05). Soil CO 2 fluxes from the oil palm (107.2 to 115.7 mg C m −2 h −1 ) decreased compared to the other land-use types (between 178.7 and 195.9 mg C m −2 h −1 ; P < 0.01). Across land-use types, annual CO 2 fluxes were positively correlated with soil organic carbon (C) and negatively correlated with 15 N signatures, extractable P and base saturation. This suggests that the reduced soil CO 2 fluxes from oil palm were the result of strongly decomposed soil organic matter and reduced soil C stocks due to reduced litter input as well as being due to a possible reduction in C allocation to roots due to improved soil fertility from liming and P fertilization in these plantations. Soil CH 4 uptake in the reference landuse types was negatively correlated with net nitrogen (N) mineralization and soil mineral N, suggesting N limitation of CH 4 uptake, and positively correlated with exchangeable aluminum (Al), indicating a decrease in methanotrophic activity at high Al saturation. Reduction in soil CH 4 uptake in the converted land-use types (ranging from −3.0 to −14.9 µg C m −2 h −1 ) compared to the reference land-use types (ranging from −20.8 to −40.3 µg C m −2 h −1 ; P < 0.01) was due to a decrease in soil N availability in the converted land-use types. Our study shows for the first time that differences in soil fertility control the soil-atmosphere exchange of CO 2 and CH 4 in a tropical landscape, a mechanism that we were able to detect by conducting this study on the landscape scale.

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Effect of pasture age on soil trace-gas emissions from a deforested area of Costa Rica

Cited by 231 publications

References 25 publications

A full greenhouse gases budget of Africa: synthesis, uncertainties, and vulnerabilities

A full greenhouse gases budget of Africa: synthesis, uncertainties, and vulnerabilities

Simulation of nitrous oxide and nitric oxide emissions from tropical primary forests in the Costa Rican Atlantic Zone

Soil fertility controls soil–atmosphere carbon dioxide and methane fluxes in a tropical landscape converted from lowland forest to rubber and oil palm plantations

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