Fire-derived phosphorus fertilization of African tropical forests.

ABSTRACT: Central African tropical forests face increasing anthropogenic pressures, particularly in the form of deforestation and land-use conversion to agriculture. The long-term effects of this transformation of pristine forests to fallow-based agroecosystems and secondary forests on biogeochemical cycles that drive forest functioning are poorly understood. Here, we show that biomass burning on the African continent results in high phosphorus (P) deposition on an equatorial forest via fire-derived atmospheric emissions. Furthermore, we show that deposition loads increase with forest regrowth age, likely due to increasing canopy complexity, ranging from 0.4 kg P ha^-1 yr^-1 on agricultural fields to 3.1 kg P ha^-1 yr^-1 on old secondary forests. In forest sys

SUBMITTER: Bauters M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8390740 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature