In the prolonged absence of major disturbances, ecosystems may enter a stage of retrogression, which is characterized by decreased ecosystem process rates
Synthesis This study compared the decomposability of leaf, twig and wood litter from 27 co‐occurring temperate rainforest tree species in New Zealand. We found that interspecific variation in decomposition was not coordinated across the three litter types. Analysis of the relationships between functional traits and decomposition revealed that traits predictive of wood decomposition varied among the species independently from traits predictive of the decomposition of leaf and twig litter. We conclude that efforts to understand how tree species influence C, N and P dynamics in forested ecosystems through the decomposition pathway need to consider the functional traits of multiple plant structures. Plant functional traits are increasingly used to evaluate changes in ecological and ecosystem processes. However our understanding of how functional traits coordinate across different plant structures, and the implications for trait‐driven processes such as litter decomposition, remains limited. We compared the functional traits of green leaves and leaf, twig and wood litter among 27 co‐occurring tree species from New Zealand, and quantified the loss of mass, N and P from the three litter types during decomposition. We hypothesised that: a) the functional traits of green leaves, and leaf, twig and wood litter are co‐ordinated so that species which produce high quality leaves and leaf litter will also produce high quality twig and wood litter, and b) the decomposability of leaf, twig and wood litter is coordinated because breakdown of all three litter types is driven by similar combinations of traits. Trait variation across species was co‐ordinated between leaves, twigs and wood when angiosperm and gymnosperm species were considered in combination, or when angiosperms were considered separately, but trait coordination was poor for gymnosperms. There was little coordination among the three litter types in their decomposability, especially when angiosperms and gymnosperms were considered separately; this was caused by the decomposability of each of the three litter types, at least partially, being driven by different functional traits or trait combinations. Our findings indicate that although interspecific variation in the functional traits of trees can be coordinated among leaves, twigs and wood, different or unrelated traits predict the decomposition of these different structures. Furthermore, leaf‐level analyses of functional traits are not satisfactory proxies for function of whole trees and related ecological processes. As such, efforts to understand how tree species influence C, N and P dynamics in forested ecosystems through the decomposition pathway need to consider functional traits of other plant structures.
No abstract is provided for this article.
No abstract is provided for this article.
Boreal forest soils play an important role in the global carbon cycle by functioning as a large terrestrial carbon sink or source, and the alteration of fire regime through global change phenomena may influence this role. We studied a system of forested lake islands in the boreal zone of Sweden for which fire frequency increases with increasing island size. Large islands supported higher plant productivity and litter decomposition rates than did smaller ones, and, with increasing time since fire, litter decomposition rates were suppressed sooner than was ecosystem productivity. This contributes to greater carbon storage with increasing time since fire; for every century without a major fire, an additional 0.5 kilograms per square meter of carbon becomes stored in the humus.
Leaf litter and other organic resources returned to the soil are important regulators of ecological processes in forest ecosystems, and their ecological im
We describe a simple gravimetric technique for measuring the standing crop or production of carbohydrate-rich solutions such as honeydew or nectar. Simulated honeydew was sampled by absorbing droplets of solutions of known concentration and volume with dried and weighed pieces of filter paper. The change in mass of the paper after redrying provides an estimate of the total solution carbohydrates. This method was compared with a widely-used technique, whereby the volume and concentration of droplets is measured with microcapillary tubes and a sugar refractometer. A factor was derived to convert gravimetric refractometer readings (g sucrose 100 g -1 solution) to volumetric carbohydrate concentration (g carbohydrate 100 ml -1 solution) for the simulated honeydew solutions. There was no difference in the ratio of measured-to-expected carbohydrate mass between the two techniques, showing that the quick, easy, and accurate filter-paper method is appropriate for measuring carbohydrate-rich solutions.
No abstract is provided for this article.
Ecosystems worldwide are losing some species and gaining others, resulting in an interchange of species that is having profound impacts on how these ecosystems function. However, research on the effects of species gains and losses has developed largely independently of one another. Recent conceptual advances regarding effects of species gain have arisen from studies that have unraveled the mechanistic basis of how invading species with novel traits alter biotic interactions and ecosystem processes. In contrast, studies on traits associated with species loss are fewer, and much remains unknown about how traits that predispose species to extinction affect ecological processes. Species gains and losses are both consequences and drivers of global change; thus, explicit integration of research on how both processes simultaneously affect ecosystem functioning is key to determining the response of the Earth system to current and future human activities.
No abstract is provided for this article.
Phenolic compounds have been shown in several studies to have important ‘carryover effects’ on litter decomposition, microbial nutrient immobilization and nutrient availability. These effects arise in part because of the adverse effect they have on the feeding activities of litter-feeding invertebrates such as micro-arthropods that drive decomposition processes. However, the interactive effects of phenolic compounds and soil micro-arthropods on litter decomposition are poorly understood. Phenolic compounds can easily be removed by acetone rinsing from living lichens, allowing us to specifically test the role that phenolic compounds (and their removal) have in controlling the effects of micro-arthropods on the decomposition of their litter. We performed a litter-bag experiment aimed at exploring how lichen litter mass loss and nutrient release during decomposition was affected by phenolics (by using acetone rinsed and non-rinsed lichen material) and micro-arthropod activity (by using different mesh sizes to allow or exclude entry by micro-arthropods) for each of six contrasting lichen species (Cladonia rangiferina, Cladonia stellaris, Evernia prunastri, Hypogymnia physodes, Pseudevernia furfuracea and Usnea dasypoga). Both the removal of phenolic compounds and the presence of micro-arthropods accelerated mass and nutrient release overall, but not for either of the two Cladonia species. Removal of phenolics also had an overall positive effect on the effects of arthropods on the loss of P, but not mass and N, from the decomposing lichens. Further, for U. dasypoga, but not the other species, natural levels of phenolic compounds deterred micro-arthropods from accelerating mass loss, and the removal of these compounds enabled micro-arthropods to enhance its decomposition. Our findings that lichen phenolic compounds can sometimes interact with micro-arthropods to influence lichen litter mass loss and nutrient release during decomposition assists our understanding of how lichens and their consumers may impact on organic matter dynamics, biochemical nutrient cycling and other related ecosystem processes.
No abstract is provided for this article.
Although there has been much recent interest in the effect of litter mixing on decomposition processes, much remains unknown about how litter mixing and diversity affects the abundance and diversity of decomposer organisms. We conducted a litter mixing experiment using litterbags in a New Zealand rainforest, in which treatments consisted of litter monocultures of each of 8 forest canopy and understory plant species, as well as mixtures of 2, 4 and 8 species. We found litter mixing to have little effect on net decomposition rates after either 279 or 658 days, and for each species decomposition rates in mixture treatments were the same as in monoculture. Litter species identity had important effects on litter microfauna, mesofauna and macrofauna, with different litter types promoting different subsets of the fauna. Litter mixing had few effects on densities of mesofauna and macrofauna, but did have some important effects on components of the microfauna, notably microbe-feeding and predatory nematodes. At day 279, litter mixing also consistently reduced the ratio of bacterial-feeding to microbe-feeding (bacterial-feeding+fungal-feeding) nematodes, pointing to mixing causing a significant switch from the bacterial-based to the fungal-based energy channel. Litter mixing sometimes influenced the community composition and diversity of nematodes and macrofauna, but effects of litter mixing on diversity were not necessarily positive, and were much weaker than effects of litter species identity on diversity. We conclude that litter mixing effects on the abundance and diversity of decomposer biota, when they occur, are likely to be of secondary and generally minor significance when compared to the effects of litter species identity and composition.
Summary The facilitative and inhibitory effects of a nitrogen‐fixing shrub, Carmichaelia odorata , during primary succession were studied using both field measurements in a New Zealand temperate montane valley, and manipulative glasshouse experiments on seedlings of the three dominant tree species, Griselinia littoralis , Metrosideros umbellata and Weinmannia racemosa . During a stand development chronosequence of < 100 years in which Carmichaelia colonized, dominated and senesced, there was significant development of soil organic horizons and a large build‐up of soil nitrogen, especially in the organic horizon. Soil organic matter and nitrogen levels across the sequence were strongly correlated with the main DCA axis of vascular plant species composition, along which there was change in dominance from herbaceous to woody species. Vegetation increased in height and light levels declined with stand development. Similar responses to shade that mimicked that in mature Carmichaelia stands suggested that inhibitory effects were likely to be uniform across the three tree species. Nitrogen, either added via Carmichaelia litter or in solution, enhanced shoot biomass and foliar nitrogen concentrations of all three tree species. Growth in soils of increasing development increased foliar nitrogen concentrations for Griselinia and Weinmannia , but not Metrosideros . Overall, Metrosideros was the least responsive to potential facilitative effects of Carmichaelia , and Griselinia exhibited the highest degree of plasticity of response. Future forest composition and spatial patterning of species in mixed stands here, as elsewhere, is likely to result from differential facilitative responses during early primary succession.
