Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome
Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the strength, direction and relative importance of the drivers of decomposition in the tundra biome, partly due to a lack of coordinated decomposition field studies in this remote environment. Here, we analysed 3717 incubations of two uniform litter types, g...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
California Digital Library (CDL)
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.32942/x28w2t |
id |
crescholarship:10.32942/x28w2t |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crescholarship:10.32942/x28w2t 2024-06-23T07:50:26+00:00 Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome Thomas, Haydn Myers-Smith, Isla Høye, Toke Petit Bon, Matteo Lembrechts, Jonas Walker, Eleanor Björnsdóttir, Katrin Barrio, Isabel Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg Svala Venn, Susanna Alatalo, Juha Baltzer, Jennifer Wallace, Cory Ackerman, Daniel Gough, Laura Prevéy, Janet Rixen, Christian Carbognani, Michele Petraglia, Alessandro Christiansen, Casper T. Inouye, David Ogilvie, Jane Trouillier, Mario Wilmking, Martin Treharne, Rachel Angers-Blondin, Sandra Urbanowicz, Christine von Oppen, Jonathan Wipf, Sonja Smith, Paul A. Suzuki, Satoshi N. Suzuki, Ryo Virkkala, Anna-Maria Luoto, Miska Serikova, Svetlana Bjorkman, Anne Blok, Daan Gallois, Elise Sarneel, Judith 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.32942/x28w2t unknown California Digital Library (CDL) posted-content 2023 crescholarship https://doi.org/10.32942/x28w2t 2024-06-06T04:24:58Z Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the strength, direction and relative importance of the drivers of decomposition in the tundra biome, partly due to a lack of coordinated decomposition field studies in this remote environment. Here, we analysed 3717 incubations of two uniform litter types, green and rooibos tea, buried at 330 circum-Arctic and alpine sites to quantify the effects of temperature, moisture and litter quality on decomposition. We found a surprisingly linear positive relationship between decomposition and soil temperature across all sites, counter to theory and previous model estimates. Litter mass loss was greater at wetter sites, even where soils reached almost full water saturation. However, litter quality was the strongest driver of litter mass loss across the tundra biome, explaining six times more variation in summer decomposition than soil temperature. Our results indicate that climate warming will directly increase decomposition across tundra environments. However, the indirect effects of climate change on vegetation communities, and thus plant litter inputs and quality, could have a more profound impact than direct effects on the balance of this globally important carbon store. Other/Unknown Material Arctic Climate change Tundra eScholarship Repository (University of California) Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
eScholarship Repository (University of California) |
op_collection_id |
crescholarship |
language |
unknown |
description |
Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the strength, direction and relative importance of the drivers of decomposition in the tundra biome, partly due to a lack of coordinated decomposition field studies in this remote environment. Here, we analysed 3717 incubations of two uniform litter types, green and rooibos tea, buried at 330 circum-Arctic and alpine sites to quantify the effects of temperature, moisture and litter quality on decomposition. We found a surprisingly linear positive relationship between decomposition and soil temperature across all sites, counter to theory and previous model estimates. Litter mass loss was greater at wetter sites, even where soils reached almost full water saturation. However, litter quality was the strongest driver of litter mass loss across the tundra biome, explaining six times more variation in summer decomposition than soil temperature. Our results indicate that climate warming will directly increase decomposition across tundra environments. However, the indirect effects of climate change on vegetation communities, and thus plant litter inputs and quality, could have a more profound impact than direct effects on the balance of this globally important carbon store. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Thomas, Haydn Myers-Smith, Isla Høye, Toke Petit Bon, Matteo Lembrechts, Jonas Walker, Eleanor Björnsdóttir, Katrin Barrio, Isabel Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg Svala Venn, Susanna Alatalo, Juha Baltzer, Jennifer Wallace, Cory Ackerman, Daniel Gough, Laura Prevéy, Janet Rixen, Christian Carbognani, Michele Petraglia, Alessandro Christiansen, Casper T. Inouye, David Ogilvie, Jane Trouillier, Mario Wilmking, Martin Treharne, Rachel Angers-Blondin, Sandra Urbanowicz, Christine von Oppen, Jonathan Wipf, Sonja Smith, Paul A. Suzuki, Satoshi N. Suzuki, Ryo Virkkala, Anna-Maria Luoto, Miska Serikova, Svetlana Bjorkman, Anne Blok, Daan Gallois, Elise Sarneel, Judith |
spellingShingle |
Thomas, Haydn Myers-Smith, Isla Høye, Toke Petit Bon, Matteo Lembrechts, Jonas Walker, Eleanor Björnsdóttir, Katrin Barrio, Isabel Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg Svala Venn, Susanna Alatalo, Juha Baltzer, Jennifer Wallace, Cory Ackerman, Daniel Gough, Laura Prevéy, Janet Rixen, Christian Carbognani, Michele Petraglia, Alessandro Christiansen, Casper T. Inouye, David Ogilvie, Jane Trouillier, Mario Wilmking, Martin Treharne, Rachel Angers-Blondin, Sandra Urbanowicz, Christine von Oppen, Jonathan Wipf, Sonja Smith, Paul A. Suzuki, Satoshi N. Suzuki, Ryo Virkkala, Anna-Maria Luoto, Miska Serikova, Svetlana Bjorkman, Anne Blok, Daan Gallois, Elise Sarneel, Judith Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome |
author_facet |
Thomas, Haydn Myers-Smith, Isla Høye, Toke Petit Bon, Matteo Lembrechts, Jonas Walker, Eleanor Björnsdóttir, Katrin Barrio, Isabel Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg Svala Venn, Susanna Alatalo, Juha Baltzer, Jennifer Wallace, Cory Ackerman, Daniel Gough, Laura Prevéy, Janet Rixen, Christian Carbognani, Michele Petraglia, Alessandro Christiansen, Casper T. Inouye, David Ogilvie, Jane Trouillier, Mario Wilmking, Martin Treharne, Rachel Angers-Blondin, Sandra Urbanowicz, Christine von Oppen, Jonathan Wipf, Sonja Smith, Paul A. Suzuki, Satoshi N. Suzuki, Ryo Virkkala, Anna-Maria Luoto, Miska Serikova, Svetlana Bjorkman, Anne Blok, Daan Gallois, Elise Sarneel, Judith |
author_sort |
Thomas, Haydn |
title |
Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome |
title_short |
Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome |
title_full |
Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome |
title_fullStr |
Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome |
title_full_unstemmed |
Litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome |
title_sort |
litter quality outweighs climate as a driver of decomposition across the tundra biome |
publisher |
California Digital Library (CDL) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.32942/x28w2t |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.32942/x28w2t |
_version_ |
1802641327255453696 |