This data package contains data from: Water table depth modulates productivity and biomass across Amazonian forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography
This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC-BY-SA 4.).
When using this data, please cite the original article:
Additionally, please cite the data package:
Data package for 'Thaiane Sousa et al. (2022) "Water table depth modulates productivity and biomass across Amazonian forests". Global Ecology and Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/geb.13531.'
ForestPlots.NET DOI: http://doi.org/10.5521/forestplots.net/2022_2
Abstract
Aim Water availability is the major driver of tropical forest structure and dynamics. While most research has focused on the impacts of climatic water availability, remarkably little is known about the influence of water table depth and excess soil water on forest processes. Nevertheless, since plants take-up water from the soil, the impacts of climatic water supply on plants are likely to be modulated by soil water conditions.
Location Lowland Amazonian forests
Time period 1971 to 2019
Methods We use 344 long-term inventory plots distributed across Amazonia to analyse the effects of long-term climatic and edaphic water supply on forest functioning. We modelled forest structure and dynamics as a function of climatic, soil-water, and edaphic properties.
Results Water supplied by both precipitation and groundwater affect forest structure and dynamics, but in different ways. Forests with shallow water table (depth < 5 m) had 18% less above-ground-woody productivity and 23% less biomass stock than deep water table, while forests in drier climates (maximum cumulative water deficit < -160 mm) had 21% less productivity and 24% less biomass than those in wetter climates. Productivity was affected by the interaction between climatic water deficit and water table depth: on average, in drier climates shallow water table forests had lower productivity than deep water table forests, with this difference decreasing within wet climates where lower productivity is confined to very shallow water table.
Main conclusions We show that the two opposites of "water availability" (excess and deficit) both reduce productivity in Amazon upland (terra-firme) forests. Biomass and productivity across Amazonia respond not simply to regional climate but rather to its interaction with highly locally differentiated water table conditions. Our study disentangles the relative contribution of those factors, helping to improve understanding of tropical-ecosystem functioning and how they are likely to respond to climate change.
