Abstract booklet - gtö – Society for Tropical Ecology

56 PARALLEL SESSION | H III | TROPICAL AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMSPARALLEL SESSION | H III | TROPICAL AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS 57TUESDAY 12:15 Hall H IIIOur first measurements of enhanced methane concentrations of 2 to 4μl L-1in air samples collected 10cm above the soil surface indicate a significantmethane emission from the swamp area. They also indicated a high spatialvariability of methane emission. The current knowledge suggest that palmswamps in western Amazonia are a tropical hotspot for soil C sequestration andthey may also be a significant methane source at the local, regional and globalperspective.LEAF FUNCTIONAL TRAITS OF AMAZONIAN FLOODPLAIN TREES INRELATION TO FLOODINGPia Parolin 11University of Hamburg, Hamburg, DE, pparolin@botanik.uni-hamburg.de1000 highly flooding tolerant tree species grow in Amazonian floodplainforests. Growth, productivity and morphological adaptations are adjusted togradients of flooding intensity and nutrient availability. Plant physiology andmorphology are adapted to conditions in specific sites, and thus tree species arenot equally distributed, but form a clear zonation along the flooding gradient.The main hypothesis of this talk is that leaves, which are among the mostimportant organs of a plant, reflect the differences in their morphoanatomicalstructures and show different adaptations and functional traits dependingon the environment the plant typically occurs in. However, results show thatthe relationship of leaf functional traits with flooding intensity and nutrientavailability are neglectable and – contrary to the expectations – no patternscould be detected. There are equal leaf adaptations in high and low positionsalong the flooding gradient, and in nutrient-poor and –rich environments. Thedifferences can be explained almost exclusively by the morphoanatomicalcharacteristics of pioneer trees which occur only in várzea.TUESDAY 12:30 Hall H IIIgtöSociety for Tropical Ecology | Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie e.V. Status and future of tropical biodiversity | Frankfurt, 21 - 24 February 2011gtö