Ecosystem respiration and net primary productivity after 8-10 years of experimental through-fall reduction in an eastern Amazon forest

Background: There is much interest in how the Amazon rainforest may respond to future rainfall reduction. However, there are relatively few ecosystem-scale studies to inform this debate.

Aims: We described the carbon cycle in a 1 ha rainforest plot subjected to 8-10 consecutive years of ca. 50% through-fall reduction (TFR) and compare these results with those from a nearby, unmodified control plot in eastern Amazonia.

Methods: We quantified the components of net primary productivity (NPP), autotrophic (R-a) and heterotrophic respiration, and estimate gross primary productivity (GPP, the sum of NPP and R-a) and carbon-use efficiency (CUE, the ratio of NPP/GPP).

Results: The TFR forest exhibited slightly lower NPP but slightly higher R-a, such that forest CUE was 0.29 +/- 0.04 on the control plot but 0.25 +/- 0.03 on the TFR plot. Compared with four years earlier, TFR plot leaf area index and small tree growth recovered and soil heterotrophic respiration had risen.

Conclusions: This analysis tested and extended the key findings of a similar analysis 4 years earlier in the TFR treatment. The results indicated that, while the forest recovered from extended drought in some respects, it maintained higher overall R-a relative to the undroughted control, potentially causing the droughted forest to act as a net source of CO2.