Nutrient availability within a single-tree gap varies between crown and bole zones

Evidence

I know of no published nutrient cycling information on the scale of a single-tree gap. Cook and Lyons (1983) assumed that increased nutrient availability occurred within windfall-created gaps and affected the growth of an understory species they studied. Anderson and Swift (1983) speculated that nutrient availability is increased within the zone in which the tree crown (containing nutrient-rich leaves) falls but is temporarily decreased by microbial immobilization in the zone along the bole. Orians (1982) demonstrated that tropical tree seedling distributions can exhibit marked associations with either the crown or the bole zone of gaps. Direct studies of the effects of single-tree gaps on nutrient cycling and availability would be most useful. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1987

Categorization

• QUESTION: Forty years on, has anyone done the direct single-tree-gap nutrient study the author calls for? Worth chasing before citing this as settled.
• XREF: Complements chapter 39’s claim that each gap is an internal environmental mosaic — here the mosaic divides into crown versus bole nutrient zones. — connects to: Microclimate inside a forest gap depends on gap diameter relative to tree height. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 164