Early stage litter decomposition across biomes
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Date
2018-07-01Author
Djukic, IkaKepfer-Rojas, Sebastian
Schmidt, Inger Kappel
Larsen, Klaus Steenberg
Beier, Claus
Berg, Björn
Verheyen, Kris
Caliman, Adriano
Paquette, Alain
Gutiérrez-Girón, Alba
Humber, Alberto
Valdecantos, Alejandro
Petraglia, Alessandro
Alexander, Heather
Augustaitis, Algirdas
Saillard, Amélie
Fernández, Ana Carolina Ruiz
Sousa, Ana I.
Lillebø, Ana I.
da Rocha Gripp, Anderson
Francez, André Jean
Fischer, Andrea
Bohner, Andreas
Malyshev, Andrey
Andrić, Andrijana
Smith, Andy
Stanisci, Angela
Seres, Anikó
Schmidt, Anja
Avila, Anna
Probst, Anne
Ouin, Annie
Khuroo, Anzar A.
Verstraeten, Arne
Palabral-Aguilera, Arely N.
Stefanski, Artur
Gaxiola, Aurora
Muys, Bart
Bosman, Bernard
Ahrends, Bernd
Parker, Bill
Sattler, Birgit
Yang, Bo
Juráni, Bohdan
Erschbamer, Brigitta
Ortiz, Carmen Eugenia Rodriguez
Christiansen, Casper T.
Carol Adair, E.
Meredieu, Céline
Mony, Cendrine
Nock, Charles A.
Chen, Chi Ling
Wang, Chiao Ping
Baum, Christel
Rixen, Christian
Delire, Christine
Piscart, Christophe
Andrews, Christopher
Rebmann, Corinna
Branquinho, Cristina
Polyanskaya, Dana
Delgado, David Fuentes
Wundram, Dirk
Radeideh, Diyaa
Ordóñez-Regil, Eduardo
Crawford, Edward
Preda, Elena
Tropina, Elena
Groner, Elli
Lucot, Eric
Hornung, Erzsébet
Gacia, Esperança
Lévesque, Esther
Benedito, Evanilde
Davydov, Evgeny A.
Ampoorter, Evy
Bolzan, Fabio Padilha
Varela, Felipe
Kristöfel, Ferdinand
Maestre, Fernando T.
Maunoury-Danger, Florence
Hofhansl, Florian
Kitz, Florian
Sutter, Flurin
Cuesta, Francisco
de Almeida Lobo, Francisco
de Souza, Franco Leandro
Berninger, Frank
Zehetner, Franz
Wohlfahrt, Georg
Vourlitis, George
Carreño-Rocabado, Geovana
Arena, Gina
Pinha, Gisele Daiane
González, Grizelle
Canut, Guylaine
Lee, Hanna
Verbeeck, Hans
Auge, Harald
Pauli, Harald
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© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Through litter decomposition enormous amounts of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litter and methodologies, adding major uncertainty to syntheses, comparisons and meta-analyses across different experiments and sites. In the TeaComposition initiative, the potential litter decomposition is investigated by using standardized substrates (Rooibos and Green tea) for comparison of litter mass loss at 336 sites (ranging from −9 to +26 °C MAT and from 60 to 3113 mm MAP) across different ecosystems. In this study we tested the effect of climate (temperature and moisture), litter type and land-use on early stage decomposition (3 months) across nine biomes. We show that litter quality was the predominant controlling factor in early stage litter decomposition, which explained about 65% of the variability in litter decomposition at a global scale. The effect of climate, on the other hand, was not litter specific and explained <0.5% of the variation for Green tea and 5% for Rooibos tea, and was of significance only under unfavorable decomposition conditions (i.e. xeric versus mesic environments). When the data were aggregated at the biome scale, climate played a significant role on decomposition of both litter types (explaining 64% of the variation for Green tea and 72% for Rooibos tea). No significant effect of land-use on early stage litter decomposition was noted within the temperate biome. Our results indicate that multiple drivers are affecting early stage litter mass loss with litter quality being dominant. In order to be able to quantify the relative importance of the different drivers over time, long-term studies combined with experimental trials are needed.
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