Leaf litter quality coupled to Salix variety drives litter decomposition more than stand diversity or climate
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Leaf litter quality coupled to Salix variety drives litter decomposition more than stand diversity or climate Stefanie Hoeber & Petra Fransson & Martin Weih & Stefano Manzoni
Received: 16 January 2020 / Accepted: 12 June 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Aims Decomposition of leaf litter is influenced by litter quality as determined by plant genotype and environment, as well as climate and soil properties. We studied these drivers of decomposition in communities of Salix varieties, hypothesizing that decomposition rates would increase under warmer climate, in more diverse communities, and with increasing litter quality of the individual varieties. Methods Litter from four Salix varieties was incubated in three field trials across a latitudinal gradient from
Responsible Editor: Luca Bragazza. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04606-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. S. Hoeber (*) : M. Weih Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Ulls väg 16, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] P. Fransson Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Almas Allé 5, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden S. Manzoni Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 8, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden S. Manzoni Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 8, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Central to Northern Europe. Litter and stand properties were measured and used as predictors of decomposition. Results No significant site differences in remaining mass or nitrogen were found. Instead, effects of initial leaf litter quality on decomposition were stronger than climatic effects. Litter quality of individual varieties strongly affected decomposition, while increasing litter diversity did not. Conclusions Decomposition was controlled by variety identity depending on site, indicating that local soil conditions affect litter quality (and thus decomposition) more than macroclimate. In mixed communities, varieties producing fast-decomposing litter enhanced the litter decomposition of other components producing slowdecomposing litter, and vice versa. This implies that site conditions partly determine which varieties affect community-level decomposition and nutrient release. Keywords Leaf litter . Decomposition . Salix . Genetic diversity . Latitudinal gradient . Litter mixing
Introduction Leaf litter decomposition is an important step in the cycling of elements in the biosphere, and the regulation of this process can have broad ecosystem-level consequences. On the one hand, litter decomposition releases nutrients chemically bound to carbon (C) (Manzoni et al. 2010; Parton et al. 2007), which are thus made available to plants in mineral form. On the other hand, the fraction of litter that is not respired by the
Plant Soil
decomposer community can become s
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