Premium
Converting forests into rubber plantations weakened the soil CH 4 sink in tropical uplands
Author(s) -
Lang Rong,
Goldberg Stefanie,
Blagodatsky Sergey,
Piepho HansPeter,
Harrison Rhett D.,
Xu Jianchu,
Cadisch Georg
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
land degradation and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1099-145X
pISSN - 1085-3278
DOI - 10.1002/ldr.3417
Subject(s) - environmental science , soil water , natural rubber , deforestation (computer science) , sink (geography) , agroforestry , carbon sink , tropics , water content , dry season , wet season , ecosystem , agronomy , soil science , ecology , geography , geology , chemistry , biology , geotechnical engineering , computer science , programming language , cartography , organic chemistry
Abstract Large‐scale conversion of natural forest to rubber plantations has taken place for decades in Southeast Asia, help to make it a deforestation hot spot. Besides negative changes in biodiversity, ecosystem water, and carbon budgets, converting forests to plantations often reduced CH 4 uptake by soils. The latter process, which might be partly responsible for resumed increase in the growth rate of CH 4 atmospheric concentrations since 2006, has not been adequately investigated. We measured soil surface CH 4 fluxes during 2014 and 2015 in natural forests and rubber plantations of different age and soil textures in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China—a representative area for this type of land‐use change. Natural forest soils were stronger CH 4 sinks than rubber soils, with annual CH 4 fluxes of −2.41 ± 0.28 and −1.01 ± 0.23 kg C ha −1 yr −1 , respectively. Water‐filled pore space was the main factor explaining the differences between natural forests and rubber plantations, even reverting rubber soils temporarily from CH 4 sink into a methane source during the rainy season in older plantations. Soil nitrate content was often lower under rubber plantations. Added as a model covariate, this factor improved explanation power of the CH 4 flux—water‐filled pore space regression. Although soils under rubber plantation were more clayey than soils under natural forest, this was not the decisive factor driving higher soil moisture and lower CH 4 uptake in rubber soils. Thus, the conversion of forests into rubber plantations exerts a negative impact on the CH 4 balance in the tropics and likely contributes to global climate.