Silicon in tropical forests: variation across soils and trees

Jörg Schaller1, Bettina Engelbracht2
1 Environmental Geochemistry
2 Plant Ecology

P 2.4 in Cross-scale relations in ecology and environmental research

Silicon (Si) accumulation in plant tissues is known to be important for stress mitigation, e.g. against drought and herbivory, two main factors shaping tropical forests, and it is also affecting the nutrient status of plant tissues. However, the potential ecological importance of Si in tropical forests remains elusive. Plant silicon availability depends on bedrock, soil diagenesis stage and precipitation, factors that are known to be highly heterogeneous along the Isthmus of Panama. We combined observational and experimental approaches to assess (a) variation of soil Si concentrations in tropical forests at the landscape scale and (b) genotypic variation of leaf Si concentrations in woody species, and (c) intra-specific variation of leaf Si of woody species across sites. Our results revealed strong variation of soil Si availability across the landscape as well as across tree species. Those differences interact with each other leading to differences in plant leaf Si status along the soil gradient differing in Si availability. Hence, our results suggest that differences in Si status of plants may play an important role for differential stress mitigation and plant nutrient status across tree species.



Keywords: Silica, soil, plant species
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