Journal of Tropical Ecology

Journal of Tropical Ecology / Volume 28 / Issue 06 / November 2012, pp 611-614 Authors: Sarah Johnson, Arshiya Bose, Jake L. Snaddon and Brian Moss (2012). doi:10.1017/S0266467412000624

Compounds of the 20 elements needed by living organisms are relatively soluble in water and therefore vulnerable to being leached and lost from terrestrial ecosystems during mineralization. Intact systems have thus acquired retention mechanisms that sequester nutrients and minimize losses. Such mechanisms should be particularly important where rainfall is very high but direct evidence of retention mechanisms in tropical forests is scarce