A broad approach to abrupt boundaries: looking beyond the boundary at soil attributes within and across tropical vegetation types.

ABSTRACT: Most research on boundaries between vegetation types emphasizes the contrasts and similarities between conditions on either side of a boundary, but does not compare boundary to non-boundary vegetation. That is, most previous studies lack suitable controls, and may therefore overlook underlying aspects of landscape variability at a regional scale and underestimate the effects that the vegetation itself has on the soil. We compared 25 soil chemistry variables in rainforest, sclerophyll vegetation and across rainforest-sclerophyll boundaries in north-eastern Queensland, Australia. Like previous studies, we did find some contrasts in soil chemistry across vegetation boundaries. However we did not find greater variation in chemical parameters across boundary transects than in transects set in e

SUBMITTER: Warman L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3622688 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature