Global distribution and climate sensitivity of the tropical montane forest nitrogen cycle

Abstract

Tropical forests are pivotal to global climate and biogeochemical cycles, yet the geographic distribution of nutrient limitation to plants and microbes across the biome is unresolved. One long-standing generalization is that tropical montane forests are nitrogen (N)-limited whereas lowland forests tend to be N-rich. However, empirical tests of this hypothesis have yielded equivocal results. Here we evaluate the topographic signature of the ecosystem-level tropical N cycle by examining climatic and geophysical controls of surface soil N content and stable isotopes (δ15N) from elevational gradients distributed across tropical mountains globally. We document steep increases in soil N concentration and declining δ15N with increasing elevation, consistent with decreased microbial N processing and lower gaseous N losses. Temperature explained much of the change in N, with an apparent temperature sensitivity (Q10) of ~1.9. Although montane forests make up 11% of forested tropical land area, we estimate they account for >17% of the global tropical forest soil N pool. Our findings support the existence of widespread microbial N limitation across tropical montane forest ecosystems and high sensitivity to climate warming.