Nutrient supply, retention and losses from tropical lowland forest, Colombia

Supervisors : Dr John Pitman, Dr, Alan Blackburn, Dr. Mark Mulligan, Department of Geography, Kings College London

The rate of re-growth and regeneration of disturbed tropical forest is usually highly controlled by the availability of water and nutrients. A major limitation of our understanding of regeneration processes hinges around the questions of whether (a) nutrient cycles in these systems are open or closed, (b) all nutrients behave in a similar fashion with respect to supply functions.. This project will investigate the interrelationships between hydrological fluxes and nutrient fluxes in both undisturbed and disturbed lowland forest, using both small plots for canopy fluxes, and small catchments for basin fluxes of nutrients. Litterfall and litter decay dynamics will be monitored over two years, along with the associated wet and dry deposition of ions, throughfall and stem flow chemistry, and soil and runoff chemistry.

Songwe NC, Okali DUU, Fasehun FE (1995) Litter Decomposition And Nutrient Release In A Tropical Rain-Forest, Southern-Bakundu-Forest-Reserve, Cameroon. Journal Of Tropical Ecology, 1995, Vol.11, No.pt3, Pp.333-350

Burslem DFRp, Grubb PJ, Turner IM (1995) Responses To Nutrient Addition Among Shade-Tolerant Tree Seedlings Of Lowland Tropical Rain-Forest In Singapore. Journal Of Ecology, 1995, Vol.83, No.1, Pp.113-122