Forests with nitrogen-fixing trees (N-fixers) typically accumulate more carbon (C) in soils than similar forests without N-fixing trees. This difference may develop from fundamentally different processes, with either greater accumulation of recently fixed C or reduced decomposition of older soil C. We compared the soil C pools under N-fixers with Eucalyptus (non-N-fixers) at four tropical sites: two sites on Andisol soils in Hawaii and two sites on Vertisol and Entisol soils in Puerto Rico. Using stable carbon isotope techniques, we tracked the loss of the old soil organic C from the previous C4 land use (SOC4) and the gain of new soil organic C from the C3, N-fixer, and non-N-fixer plantations (SOC3). Soils beneath N-fixing trees sequestered 0.11 + 0.07 kg m-2 y-' (mean ± one standard error) of total soil organic carbon (SOCT) compared with no change under Eucalyptus( 0.00 ± 0.07 kg m-2 y-1; P = 0.02). About 55% of the greater SOCT sequestration under the N-fixers resulted from greater retention of old SOC4, and 45% resulted from greater accretion of new SOC3. Soil N accretion under the N-fixers explained 62% of the variability of the greater retention of old SOC4 under the N-fixers. The greater retention of older soil C under N-fixing trees is a novel finding and may be important for strategies that use reforestation or afforestation to offset C emissions.

A total of twenty 0-20cm soil samples from the El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico, have been analyzed using XRD analysis to determine their mineral content. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data show that all the samples contain quartz, orthoclase, kaolinite, dickite, halloysite and nicrite, gibbsite, augelite, metavariscite, goethite, tsaregorodtsevite, apophylite. Soil sample from Oxisols sites contain higher percentage of clay minerals than the samples from Dystrudepts sites. Furthermore, the general pattern of the percentage of total clays, feldspars, and gibbsite within each and between transects suggest that soils in the valleys are more weathered and leached than soils from ridges. The percentage increase of phosphate minerals in the soils follow that of clay minerals which is most probably due to the attachment of the phosphate minerals to clay mineral surfaces. The presence of the organic cation Tetramethylammonium in the cavities between the oxygen-silicon tetrahedra of the tsaregorodtsevite structure (feldsphoid-zeolitic structure) is consistent with a low energy mechanism for the sequestration of carbon and nitrogen in the EYNF soils.

Wet tropical forests play a critical role in global ecosystem carbon (C) cycle, but C allocation and the response of different C pools to nutrient addition in these forests remain poorly understood. We measured soil organic carbon (SOC), litterfall, root biomass, microbial biomass and soil physical and chemical properties in a wet tropical forest from May 1996 to July 1997 following a 7-year continuous fertilization. We found that although there was no significant difference in total SOC in the top 0–10cm of the soils between the fertilization plots (5.42
0.18 kgm2) and the control plots (5.27
0.22 kgm2), the proportion of the heavy-fraction organic C in the total SOC was significantly higher in the fertilized plots (59%) than in the control plots (46%) (Po0.05). The annual decomposition rate of fertilized leaf litter was 13% higher than that of the control leaf litter.We also found that fertilization significantly increased microbial biomass (fungi1bacteria) with 952
48mgkg1soil in the fertilized plots and 755
37mgkg1soil in the control plots. Our results suggest that fertilization in tropical forests may enhance long-term C sequestration in the soils of tropical wet forests.

Tropical small mountainous rivers (SMRs) may transport up to 33% of the total carbon (C) delivered to the oceans. However, these fluxes are poorly quantified and historical records of land-ocean carbon delivery are rare. Corals have the potential to provide such records in the tropics because they are long-lived, draw on dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) for calcification, and isotopic variations within their skeletons are useful proxies of palaeoceanographic variability. The ability to quantify riverine C inputs to the coastal ocean and understand how they have changed through time is critical to understanding global carbon budgets in the context of modern climate change. A seasonal dual isotope (13C & 14C) characterization of the three major C pools in two SMRs and their adjacent coastal waters within Puerto Rico was conducted in order to understand the isotope signature of DIC being delivered to the coastal oceans. Additionally a 56-year record of paired coral skeletal C isotopes (δ13C & Δ14C) and trace elements (Ba/Ca, Mn/Ca, Y/Ca) is presented from a coral growing ~1 km from the mouth of an SMR. Four major findings were observed: 1) Riverine DIC was more depleted in δ13C and Δ14C than seawater DIC, 2) the correlation of δ13C and Δ14C was the same in both coral skeleton and the DIC of the river and coastal waters, 3) Coral δ13C and Ba/Ca were annually coherent with river discharge, and 4) increases in coral Ba/Ca were synchronous with the iii timing of depletions of both δ13C and Δ14C in the coral skeleton and increases in river discharge. This study represents a first-order comprehensive C isotope analysis of major C pools being transported to the coastal ocean via tropical SMRs. The strong coherence between river discharge and coral δ13C and Ba/Ca, and the concurrent timing of increases in Ba/Ca with decreases in δ13C and Δ14C suggest that river discharge is simultaneously recorded by multiple geochemical records. Based on these findings, the development of coral-based proxies for the history of land-ocean carbon flux would be invaluable to understanding the role of tropical land-ocean carbon fluxes in the context of global climate change.