Abstract
Abstract. Expansion of palm oil and rubber production, for which global demand is increasing, causes rapid deforestation in Sumatra, Indonesia, and is expected to continue in the next decades. Our study aimed to (1) quantify changes in soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes with land-use change and (2) determine their controlling factors. In Jambi Province, Sumatra, we selected two landscapes on heavily weathered soils that differ mainly in texture: loam and clay Acrisol soils. In each landscape, we investigated the reference land-use types (forest and secondary forest with regenerating rubber) and the converted land-use types (rubber, 7–17 years old, and oil palm plantations, 9–16 years old). We measured soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes monthly from December 2012 to December 2013. Annual soil CO2 fluxes from the reference land-use types were correlated with soil fertility: low extractable phosphorus (P) coincided with high annual CO2 fluxes from the loam Acrisol soil that had lower fertility than the clay Acrisol soil (P < 0.05). Soil CO2 fluxes from the oil palm (107.2 to 115.7 mg C m−2 h−1) decreased compared to the other land-use types (between 178.7 and 195.9 mg C m−2 h−1; P < 0.01). Across land-use types, annual CO2 fluxes were positively correlated with soil organic carbon (C) and negatively correlated with 15N signatures, extractable P and base saturation. This suggests that the reduced soil CO2 fluxes from oil palm were the result of strongly decomposed soil organic matter and reduced soil C stocks due to reduced litter input as well as being due to a possible reduction in C allocation to roots due to improved soil fertility from liming and P fertilization in these plantations. Soil CH4 uptake in the reference land-use types was negatively correlated with net nitrogen (N) mineralization and soil mineral N, suggesting N limitation of CH4 uptake, and positively correlated with exchangeable aluminum (Al), indicating a decrease in methanotrophic activity at high Al saturation. Reduction in soil CH4 uptake in the converted land-use types (ranging from −3.0 to −14.9 μg C m−2 h−1) compared to the reference land-use types (ranging from −20.8 to −40.3 μg C m−2 h−1; P < 0.01) was due to a decrease in soil N availability in the converted land-use types. Our study shows for the first time that differences in soil fertility control the soil–atmosphere exchange of CO2 and CH4 in a tropical landscape, a mechanism that we were able to detect by conducting this study on the landscape scale.
Highlights
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) are two of the fastest-expanding tree cash crops in the tropics (Clay, 2013)
water-filled pore space (WFPS) in the jungle rubber was higher in the clay than loam Acrisol soils (P < 0.01), but, in the forest, WFPS did not differ between landscapes (P = 0.56; Fig. 1a, b)
Compared to measurements conducted in Indonesia, our lowland forests had higher soil CO2 fluxes than a montane forest in Sulawesi at 1000 m elevation with similar spatially replicated and temporally intensive measurements (127 mg C m−2 h−1; van Straaten et al, 2011); fluxes were higher than in the seven partially logged forest sites in Jambi, where measurements were only made once (162 mg C m−2 h−1; Ishizuka et al, 2005)
Summary
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) are two of the fastest-expanding tree cash crops in the tropics (Clay, 2013). Global oil palm production has quintupled from 1990 to 2013 and is currently grown on an estimated area of 17 million hectare (Mha) Indonesia contributes nearly half of the global palm oil production (Food and Agricultural Organization, 2014) and is planning to double its production in the coming decade (Carlson et al, 2013). Most Indonesian oil palm and rubber production is located in Sumatra (Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, 2014), where the conversion of lowland rainforest to plantations has been widespread (Laumonier et al, 2010). It has been estimated that plantation establishment has caused a loss of 7.5 Mha of Sumatran natural forest in the last 2 decades (1990–2010) (Margono et al, 2012), and future expansion will probably be at the expense of large areas of tropical forest, unless a properly planned and spatially explicit development strategy is implemented (Koh and Ghazoul, 2010)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
