Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter
Abstract Litter decomposition is a fundamental ecosystem process and service that supplies nutrients to the soil. Although decomposition rate is influenced by litter quality, climatic conditions, the decomposer community and vegetation type in non-urban ecosystems, little is known about the degradat...
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3/fulltext.html |
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crspringernat:10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3 2023-05-15T16:13:10+02:00 Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter Kotze, DJ Setälä, H University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Urban Ecosystems ISSN 1083-8155 1573-1642 Urban Studies Ecology journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3 2022-01-04T13:39:03Z Abstract Litter decomposition is a fundamental ecosystem process and service that supplies nutrients to the soil. Although decomposition rate is influenced by litter quality, climatic conditions, the decomposer community and vegetation type in non-urban ecosystems, little is known about the degradation of different organic matter types in urban settings. We investigated the decomposition rates of recalcitrant (wood sticks for 4 years) and labile litter (green tea leaves in pyramid-shaped teabags for 3 years) in urban habitats that differed in level of management and disturbance. We found that recalcitrant woody material decomposed slower in urban habitat types (ca. 60–75% mass loss after 4 years in remnant spruce forests, park lawns, ruderal habitats) than in natural to semi-natural spruce forest soils (84% mass loss) outside the city. Labile tea litter, however, decomposed faster in typical open urban habitats (70% mass loss after 3 years in park lawns, ruderal habitats) than in forested habitats (60% mass loss in semi-natural and remnant spruce forests), with a remarkable dichotomy in decomposition rate between open and forested habitats. We suggest that the slower rate of wood decomposition in the city relates to its depauperate saprotrophic fungal community. The faster rate of labile litter decomposition in open habitats is difficult to explain, but is potentially a consequence of environmental factors that support the activity of bacteria over fungi in open habitats. We propose that the reintroduction of decaying woody material into the urban greenspace milieu could increase biodiversity and also improve the ability of urban soils to decompose an array of organic material entering the system. This reintroduction of decaying woody material could either occur by leaving cut logs – due to management – in urban remnant forests, which has been shown to be accepted as natural features by residents in Fennoscandian cities, and by placing logs in urban parks in ways that communicate their intentional use as part of urban landscape design and management. Article in Journal/Newspaper Fennoscandian Springer Nature (via Crossref) Pyramid ENVELOPE(157.300,157.300,-81.333,-81.333) Urban Ecosystems |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Urban Studies Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Urban Studies Ecology Kotze, DJ Setälä, H Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter |
topic_facet |
Urban Studies Ecology |
description |
Abstract Litter decomposition is a fundamental ecosystem process and service that supplies nutrients to the soil. Although decomposition rate is influenced by litter quality, climatic conditions, the decomposer community and vegetation type in non-urban ecosystems, little is known about the degradation of different organic matter types in urban settings. We investigated the decomposition rates of recalcitrant (wood sticks for 4 years) and labile litter (green tea leaves in pyramid-shaped teabags for 3 years) in urban habitats that differed in level of management and disturbance. We found that recalcitrant woody material decomposed slower in urban habitat types (ca. 60–75% mass loss after 4 years in remnant spruce forests, park lawns, ruderal habitats) than in natural to semi-natural spruce forest soils (84% mass loss) outside the city. Labile tea litter, however, decomposed faster in typical open urban habitats (70% mass loss after 3 years in park lawns, ruderal habitats) than in forested habitats (60% mass loss in semi-natural and remnant spruce forests), with a remarkable dichotomy in decomposition rate between open and forested habitats. We suggest that the slower rate of wood decomposition in the city relates to its depauperate saprotrophic fungal community. The faster rate of labile litter decomposition in open habitats is difficult to explain, but is potentially a consequence of environmental factors that support the activity of bacteria over fungi in open habitats. We propose that the reintroduction of decaying woody material into the urban greenspace milieu could increase biodiversity and also improve the ability of urban soils to decompose an array of organic material entering the system. This reintroduction of decaying woody material could either occur by leaving cut logs – due to management – in urban remnant forests, which has been shown to be accepted as natural features by residents in Fennoscandian cities, and by placing logs in urban parks in ways that communicate their intentional use as part of urban landscape design and management. |
author2 |
University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kotze, DJ Setälä, H |
author_facet |
Kotze, DJ Setälä, H |
author_sort |
Kotze, DJ |
title |
Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter |
title_short |
Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter |
title_full |
Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter |
title_fullStr |
Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter |
title_full_unstemmed |
Urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter |
title_sort |
urbanisation differently affects decomposition rates of recalcitrant woody material and labile leaf litter |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3/fulltext.html |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(157.300,157.300,-81.333,-81.333) |
geographic |
Pyramid |
geographic_facet |
Pyramid |
genre |
Fennoscandian |
genre_facet |
Fennoscandian |
op_source |
Urban Ecosystems ISSN 1083-8155 1573-1642 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01125-3 |
container_title |
Urban Ecosystems |
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1765998768335880192 |