Direct and understorey-mediated indirect effects of human-induced environmental changes on litter decomposition in temperate forest

Publication date: Available online 29 August 2019Source: Soil Biology and BiochemistryAuthor(s): Bin Wang, Haben Blondeel, Lander Baeten, Ika Djukic, Emiel De Lombaerde, Kris VerheyenAbstractHuman-induced environmental changes in temperature, light availability due to forest canopy management, nitrogen deposition, and land-use legacies can alter ecosystem processes such as litter decomposition. These influences can be both direct and indirect via altering the performance of understorey vegetation. To identify the direct and indirect effects of environmental changes on litter decomposition, we performed an experiment with standardised green and rooibos teas. The experiment was conducted in a temperate mixed deciduous forest, and treatments (temperature, light, and nitrogen) were applied to mesocosms filled with ancient and post-agricultural forest soil. Both green tea and rooibos teas were more rapidly decomposed in oligotrophic soil than in eutrophic soil. The direct effects of the treatments on litter decomposition varied among the two litter types, incubation times, and soil fertility groups. Warming and agricultural legacy had a negative direct effect on the decomposition of the green tea in the high soil fertility treatment during the early decomposition stage. In contrast, agricultural legacy had a positive direct effect on the decomposition of rooibos tea. Soil enriched with nitrogen had a negative direct effect on the decomposition of green tea in mesotrophic soil in t...
Source: Soil Biology and Biochemistry - Category: Biology Source Type: research