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SUMMARY:Effects of litter manipulation on fine root dynamics in lowland tr
 opical forest in Panama - Chadtip Rodtassana 1st Year Graduate Students
DTSTART:20140228T130000Z
DTEND:20140228T132500Z
UID:TALK49505@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Megan Cooper
DESCRIPTION:Litterfall transfers nutrients to soil\; roots (and mycorrhiza
 s) absorb nutrient but also die and decompose. A long-term litter manipula
 tion experiment established in 2003 in lowland tropical forest in Panama i
 nvestigates the effects of changing nutrient input in litterfall. A genera
 l prediction is that root mass should increase in the infertile condition\
 , but first measurements of roots after 18 months of manipulation (Sayer e
 t al.\, 2006) showed the opposite - less root biomass in litter removal pl
 ots. Therefore my study aims to investigate the general idea of root-nutri
 ent relationships and fine root dynamics specifically in lowland tropical 
 forest using various methods including sequential coring\, ingrowth cores 
 and root windows. After a long-term of manipulation (10 years) the results
  from sequential coring showed that fine root biomass in top soil layer (0
 -5 cm) was significantly lower in litter removals than the controls during
  wet season (ANOVA\, F1\,88 = 4.1\, p < 0.05)\, which is the opposite of  
 the general prediction.  Thus although across site those with less fertile
  soils have higher root biomass and root/shoot ratio\, when a site is impo
 verished by removing nutrients root biomass and litter production decrease
 .”
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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