On Thursday, May 8 @ 11am ET, join Cary Institute for a virtual scientific seminar by Dr. Kelly M. Andersen, Missouri Botanical Garden. Lowland tropical forests on ancient, highly weathered soils are hypothesized to be limited by soil phosphorus (P) availability. This talk addresses knowledge gaps in phosphorus cycling and soil nutrient limitations on tropical forest function, from microbial communities to whole forest primary productivity, to understand ecological resilience to global change drivers.
First, evidence from the Amazon Fertilisation Experiment (AFEX) demonstrates that soil phosphorus alone drives ecosystem-scale primary productivity, supporting model predictions that soil phosphorus will limit tropical forests under increased atmospheric CO2. Second, research gaps in belowground ecology in Southeast (SE) Asian tropical forests can be explored by examining how mycorrhizal symbioses influence soil microbial communities, nutrient acquisition strategies, and carbon dynamics across. Results suggest that SE Asian tropical forests must undergo mycorrhizal-mediated state shifts in nutrient uptake strategies along succession gradients, which likely slows forest succession with implications for coupled carbon-nutrient cycling. Finally, through international collaborations, networks of researchers are developing a novel understanding of pantropical forest function by incorporating belowground function for model development and predictions for tropical forest resilience across biogeographic regions.
Free and open to all. Registration required via Eventbrite.
