A Comparison of Runoff Pathways and Nutrient Export in Small Tropical Forest Catchments

The Center for Tropical Forest Research (CTFS), a program of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), has coordinated a global network of 17 tropical forest dynamics plots of approximately 50 hectares in order to collect baseline information and to monitor forest changes. Missing from most past studies of these plots is an integrated soil hydrology and water chemistry component. To fill this gap, we have developed and are testing rapid assessment methods to measure soil and hydrological properties for tropical forest catchments. This assessment includes gaging and sampling first to third order headwater streams with high frequency over several storm events within a 2-4 week period. Detailed flow separations enable us to test Elsenbeer's (2001) functional classification continuum for tropical soils and allow us to test the hypothesis that forest sites with greater overland flow experience greater nutrient loss during storm events. Data from a storm event for the steep Lutz Creek Catchment on Barro Colorado Island, Panama in September 1990 demonstrate that Na⁺ and Si, typical of most solutes, decrease in concentration with increasing discharge. In contrast, the nutrients, K⁺ and NO₃^- increase in concentration with increasing discharge. Results from a 20 ha catchment in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador from November 2003 show a similar pattern during several small events on relatively impermeable soils. Data collected from a more permeable 20 ha catchment in Lambir Hills National Park, Malaysia in July 2004 also show nutrient export, but suggest that rainfall amount, intensity and duration may play a large role in the magnitude of nutrient concentrations. Elsenbeer, H., 2001. Hydrological flowpaths in tropical rain forest soilscapes-a review. Hydrological Processes, 15: 1751-1759.