Abstract
We used geo-spatial statistical techniques to examine the spatial variation and relationship of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil moisture (SM) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF), Puerto Rico, in order to test the hypothesis that mountainous terrain introduces spatial autocorrelation and crosscorrelation in ecosystem and soil properties. Soil samples (n = 100) were collected from the LEF in the summer of 1998 and analyzed for SOC, SM, and bulk density (BD). A global positioning system was used to georeference the location of each sampling site. At each site, elevation, slope and aspect were recorded. We calculated the isotropic and anisotropic semivariograms of soil and topographic properties, as well as the cross-variograms between SOC and SM, and between SOC and elevation. Then we used four models (random, linear, spherical and wave/hole) to test the semi-variances of SOC, SM, BD, elevation, slope and aspect for spatial dependence. Our results indicate that all the studied properties except slope angle exhibit spatial dependence within the scale of sampling (200 – 1000 m sampling interval). The spatially structured variance (the variance due to the location of sampling sites) accounted for a large proportion of the sample variance for elevation (99%), BD (90%), SOC (68%), aspect (56%) and SM (44%). The ranges of spatial dependence (the distances within which parameters are spatially dependent) for aspect, SOC, elevation, SM, and BD were 9810 m, 3070 m, 1120 m, 930 m and 430 m, respectively. Cross correlograms indicate that SOC varies closely with elevation and SM depending on the distances between samples. The correlation can shift from positive to negative as the separation distance increases. Larger ranges of spatial dependence of SOC, aspect and elevation indicate that the distribution of SOC in the LEF is determined by a combination of biotic (e.g., litterfall) and abiotic factors (e.g., microclimate and topographic features) related to elevation and aspect. This demonstrates the importance of both elevation and topographic gradients in controlling climate, vegetation distribution and soil properties as well as the associated biogeochemical processes in the LEF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Basnet K. 1993. Controls of environmental factors on patterns of Montane rain forest in Puerto Rico. Tropical Ecology 34: 51–63.
Birkeland P.W. 1974. Pedology, Weathering, and Geomorphologic Research. Oxford University Press: New York, New York, USA.
Black C.A. 1965. Methods of soil analysis. Part 2: Chemical and microbiological properties. American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Brown S., Lugo A.E., Silander S. and Liegel L. 1983. Research History and Opportunities in the Luquillo Experimental Forest., Washington, DC, USA, USDA General Technical Report SO-44.
Burgess T.M. and Webster R. 1980a. Optimal interpolation and isarithmic mapping of soil properties I: the semi-variogram and punctual kriging. Journal of Soil Science 31: 315–331.
Burgess T.M. and Webster R. 1980b. Optimal interpolation and isarithmic mapping of soil properties II: block kriging. Journal of Soil Science 31: 333–341.
Cahn M.D., Hummel J.W. and Brouer B.H. 1994. Spatial analysis of soil fertility for site-specific crop management. Soil Science Society of America Journal 58: 1240–1248.
Davidoff B. and Selim H.M. 1988. Correlation between spatially variable soil moisture content and soil temperature. Soil Science 145: 1–10.
Detwiler R.P. 1986. Land use change and the global carbon cycle: the role of tropical soils. Biogeochemistry 2: 67–93.
Gamma Design 1998. GS+: GeoStatistics for the Environmental Sciences, version 3.1a. Gamma Design, Plainwell, Michigan, USA.
Garcia-Martino A.R., Warner G.S., Scatena F.N. and Civco D.L. 1996. Rainfall, runoff and elevation relationships in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 32: 413–424.
Garcia-Montiel D.C. and Scatena F.N. 1994. The effect of human activity on the structure and composition of a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. For. Ecol. and Management 63: 57–78.
Griffith D.A. and Layne L.J. 1999. A Casebook for spatial statistical data analysis. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.
Hall C.A.S., Taylor M.R. and Everham E. 1992. A geographically based ecosystem model and its application to the carbon balance of the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 64: 385–404.
Holdridge L.R. 1967. Life Zone Ecology. Tropical Science Center, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Isaaks E.H. and Srivastava R.M. 1989. An introduction to applied geostatistics. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.
Kern J.S., Turner D.P. and Dodson R.F. 1997. Spatial patterns of soil organic carbon pool size in the Northwestern United States. In: Lal R. (ed.), Soil Processes and the Carbon Cycle. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA, pp. 29–43.
Leclerc G., Reyes C. and Hall C.A.S. 2000. Synthesis of Costa Rica meteorological information in a geographical context. In: Hall C.A.S. (ed.), Quantifying Sustainable Development. Academic Press, San Diego, California, USA, pp. 223–264.
Lugo A.E. and Brown S. 1993. Management of tropical soils as sinks or sources of atmospheric carbon. Plant and Soil 149: 27–41.
McDowell W.H., Bowden W.B. and Asbury C.E. 1992. Riparian nitrogen dynamics in two geomorphologically distinct tropical rain forest watersheds: subsurface solute patterns. Biogeochemistry 18: 53–75.
Parton W.J., Schimel D.S., Cole C.V. and Ojima D.S. 1987. Analysis of factors controlling soil organic matter levels in Great Plains Grasslands. Soil Society of America Journal 51: 1173–1179.
Parton W.J., Stewart J.W.B. and Cole C.V. 1988. Dynamics of C, N, P and S in grassland soils: a model. Biogeochemistry 5: 109–131.
Pastor J., Dewey B., Moen R., Mladenoff D.J., White M. and Cohen Y. 1998. Spatial patterns in the moose-forest-soil ecosystem on Isle Royale, Michigan, USA. Ecological Applications 8: 411–424.
Robertson G.P. 1987. Geostatistics in ecology: interpolating with known variance. Ecology 68: 744–748.
Robertson G.P., Klingensmith K.M., Klug M.J., Paul E.A., Crum J.R. and Ellis B. 1997. Soil resources, microbial activity, and primary production across an agricultural ecosystem. Ecological Applications 7: 158–170.
Rossi R.E., Mulla D.J., Journel A.G. and Franz E.H. 1992. Geostatistical tools for modeling and interpreting ecological spatial dependence. Ecological Monographs 62: 277–314.
Rouhani S., Srivastava R.M., Desbarats A.J., Cromer M.V. and Johnson A.I.J. 1996. Geostatistics for environmental and geotechnical applications. ASTM Committee, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA.
Sanchez M.J., Lopez E. and Lugo A.E. 1997. Chemical and physical analyses of selected plants and soils from Puerto Rico (1981-1990). Research Note IITF-RN-1, USDA Forest Service. International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, USA.
Sanford R.L., Parton W.J., Ojima D.S. and Lodge D.J. 1991. Hurricane effects on soil organic dynamics and forest production in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico: results of simulation modeling. Biotropica 23: 364–372.
Scatena F.N. and Lugo A.E. 1995. Geomorphology, disturbance, and the soil and vegetation of two subtropical wet steepland watersheds of Puerto Rico. Geomorphology 13: 199–213.
Scatena F.N., Moya S., Estrada C. and Chinea J.D. 1996. The first five years in the reorganization of aboveground biomass and nutrient use following hurricane Hugo in the Bisley Experimental Watersheds, Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Biotropica 28: 424–440.
Silver W.L., Scatena F.N., Johnson A.H., Siccama T.G. and Sanchez M.J. 1994. Nutrient availability in a montane wet tropical forest: spatial patterns and methodological considerations. Plant and Soil 164: 129–145.
Silver W.L., Lugo A.E. and Keller M. 1999. Soil oxygen availability and biogeochemistry along rainfall and topographic gradients in upland wet tropical forest soils. Biogeochemistry 44: 301–328.
Schlesinger W.H., Raikes J.A., Hartley A.E. and Cross A.F. 1996. On the spatial pattern of soil nutrients in desert ecosystems. Ecology 77: 364–374.
Smith J.L., Halvorson J.J. and Bolton H. 1994. Spatial relationships of soil microbial biomass and C and N mineralization in a semi-arid shrub-steppe ecosystem. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 26: 1151–1159.
Tabor J.A., Warrick A.W., Pennington D.A. and Myers D.E. 1984. Spatial variability of nitrate in irrigated cotton: I. Petioles. Soil Science Society of America Journal 48: 602–607.
Thompson G.R. and Turk J. 1993. Modern Physical Geology. Updated version. Saunders College Publishing, Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
Trangmar B.B., Yost R.S. and Uehara G. 1985. Application of geostatistics to spatial studies of soil properties. Advances in Agronomy 38: 45–94.
Trangmar B.B., Yost R.S., Wade M.K., Uehara G. and Sudjadi M. 1987. Spatial variation of soil properties and rice yield on recently cleared land. Soil Science Society of America Journal 51: 668–674.
Wang H., Cornell J.D., Hall C.A.S. and Marley D.P. 2002. Spatial and seasonal dynamics of surface soil carbon in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Ecological Modeling 147: 105–122 (in press).
Weaver P.L., Birdsey R.A. and Lugo A.E. 1987. Soil organic matter in secondary forests of Puerto Rico. Biotropica 19: 17–23.
Weaver P.L. and Murphy P.G. 1990. Forest structure and productivity in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo Mountains. Biotropica 22: 69–82.
Webster R. 1985. Quantitative spatial analysis of soil in the field. Advances in Soil Science 3: 1–70.
Yost R.S., Uehara G. and Fox R.L. 1982a. Geostatistical analysis of soil chemical properties of large land areas. I. Semi-variograms. Soil Science Society of America Journal 46: 1028–1032.
Yost R.S., Uehara G. and Fox R.L. 1982b. Geostatistical analysis of soil chemical properties of large land areas. II. Kriging. Soil Science Society of America Journal 46: 1033–1037.
Zimmerman J.K., Willig M.R., Walker L.R. and Silver W.L. 1996. Disturbance and Caribbean Ecosystems. Biotropica 28: 414–423.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, H., Hall, C.A., Cornell, J.D. et al. Spatial dependence and the relationship of soil organic carbon and soil moisture in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Landscape Ecol 17, 671–684 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022962116313
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022962116313