The importance of nutrient pulses in tropical forests.

Recent research shows that nutrient fluxes are often pulsed In tropical forests, and that pulsed versus gradual inputs have different effects on the fates of nutrients in the ecosystem. Synchrony of nutrient mineralization with plant uptake can lower competition between microbes and plants for limiting nutrients while maintaining tight nutrient cycling, whereas asynchrony can lead to losses of nutrients from the system. Thus, nutrient pulses may play a critical role in maintaining productivity in tropical forests with tight nutrient cycling.