Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline
Decomposition of plant litter is a key control over carbon (C) storage in the soil. The biochemistry of the litter being produced, the environment in which the decomposition is taking place, and the community composition and metabolism of the decomposer organisms exert a combined influence over deco...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27641 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2442 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/27641/1/Parker_et_al-2018-Ecology.pdf |
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ftunivstirling:oai:dspace.stir.ac.uk:1893/27641 2023-05-15T14:27:18+02:00 Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline Parker, Thomas C Sanderman, Jonathan Holden, Robert D Blume-Werry, Gesche Sjögersten, Sofie Large, David Castro-Díaz, Miguel Street, Lorna E Subke, Jens-Arne Wookey, Philip A Natural Environment Research Council Biological and Environmental Sciences Woods Hole Research Center Swedish Polar Research Secretariat Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald University of Nottingham University of Edinburgh orcid:0000-0002-3648-5316 orcid:0000-0001-9244-639X orcid:0000-0001-5957-6424 2018-10-31 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27641 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2442 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/27641/1/Parker_et_al-2018-Ecology.pdf en eng Wiley Parker TC, Sanderman J, Holden RD, Blume-Werry G, Sjögersten S, Large D, Castro-Díaz M, Street LE, Subke J & Wookey PA (2018) Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline. Ecology, 99 (10), pp. 2284-2294. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2442 http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27641 doi:10.1002/ecy.2442 29981157 WOS:000446270400016 2-s2.0-85052612946 971089 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/27641/1/Parker_et_al-2018-Ecology.pdf © 2018 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Ecological Society of America This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Journal Article VoR - Version of Record 2018 ftunivstirling https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2442 2022-06-13T18:45:46Z Decomposition of plant litter is a key control over carbon (C) storage in the soil. The biochemistry of the litter being produced, the environment in which the decomposition is taking place, and the community composition and metabolism of the decomposer organisms exert a combined influence over decomposition rates. As deciduous shrubs and trees are expanding into tundra ecosystems as a result of regional climate warming, this change in vegetation represents a change in litter input to tundra soils and a change in the environment in which litter decomposes. To test the importance of litter biochemistry and environment in determining litter mass loss, we reciprocally transplanted litter between heath (Empetrum nigrum), shrub (Betula nana), and forest (Betula pubescens) at a sub‐Arctic treeline in Sweden. As expansion of shrubs and trees promotes deeper snow, we also used a snow fence experiment in a tundra heath environment to understand the importance of snow depth, relative to other factors, in the decomposition of litter. Our results show that B. pubescens and B. nana leaf litter decomposed at faster rates than E. nigrum litter across all environments, while all litter species decomposed at faster rates in the forest and shrub environments than in the tundra heath. The effect of increased snow on decomposition was minimal, leading us to conclude that microbial activity over summer in the productive forest and shrub vegetation is driving increased mass loss compared to the heath. Using B. pubescens and E. nigrum litter, we demonstrate that degradation of carbohydrate‐C is a significant driver of mass loss in the forest. This pathway was less prominent in the heath, which is consistent with observations that tundra soils typically have high concentrations of "labile" C. This experiment suggests that further expansion of shrubs and trees may stimulate the loss of undecomposed carbohydrate C in the tundra. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Betula nana Empetrum nigrum Tundra University of Stirling: Stirling Digital Research Repository Arctic Ecology 99 10 2284 2294 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Stirling: Stirling Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivstirling |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Parker, Thomas C Sanderman, Jonathan Holden, Robert D Blume-Werry, Gesche Sjögersten, Sofie Large, David Castro-Díaz, Miguel Street, Lorna E Subke, Jens-Arne Wookey, Philip A Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline |
topic_facet |
Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Decomposition of plant litter is a key control over carbon (C) storage in the soil. The biochemistry of the litter being produced, the environment in which the decomposition is taking place, and the community composition and metabolism of the decomposer organisms exert a combined influence over decomposition rates. As deciduous shrubs and trees are expanding into tundra ecosystems as a result of regional climate warming, this change in vegetation represents a change in litter input to tundra soils and a change in the environment in which litter decomposes. To test the importance of litter biochemistry and environment in determining litter mass loss, we reciprocally transplanted litter between heath (Empetrum nigrum), shrub (Betula nana), and forest (Betula pubescens) at a sub‐Arctic treeline in Sweden. As expansion of shrubs and trees promotes deeper snow, we also used a snow fence experiment in a tundra heath environment to understand the importance of snow depth, relative to other factors, in the decomposition of litter. Our results show that B. pubescens and B. nana leaf litter decomposed at faster rates than E. nigrum litter across all environments, while all litter species decomposed at faster rates in the forest and shrub environments than in the tundra heath. The effect of increased snow on decomposition was minimal, leading us to conclude that microbial activity over summer in the productive forest and shrub vegetation is driving increased mass loss compared to the heath. Using B. pubescens and E. nigrum litter, we demonstrate that degradation of carbohydrate‐C is a significant driver of mass loss in the forest. This pathway was less prominent in the heath, which is consistent with observations that tundra soils typically have high concentrations of "labile" C. This experiment suggests that further expansion of shrubs and trees may stimulate the loss of undecomposed carbohydrate C in the tundra. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council Biological and Environmental Sciences Woods Hole Research Center Swedish Polar Research Secretariat Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald University of Nottingham University of Edinburgh orcid:0000-0002-3648-5316 orcid:0000-0001-9244-639X orcid:0000-0001-5957-6424 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Parker, Thomas C Sanderman, Jonathan Holden, Robert D Blume-Werry, Gesche Sjögersten, Sofie Large, David Castro-Díaz, Miguel Street, Lorna E Subke, Jens-Arne Wookey, Philip A |
author_facet |
Parker, Thomas C Sanderman, Jonathan Holden, Robert D Blume-Werry, Gesche Sjögersten, Sofie Large, David Castro-Díaz, Miguel Street, Lorna E Subke, Jens-Arne Wookey, Philip A |
author_sort |
Parker, Thomas C |
title |
Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline |
title_short |
Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline |
title_full |
Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline |
title_fullStr |
Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline |
title_full_unstemmed |
Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline |
title_sort |
exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening arctic: results from a transplant experiment across a treeline |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27641 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2442 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/27641/1/Parker_et_al-2018-Ecology.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Betula nana Empetrum nigrum Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Betula nana Empetrum nigrum Tundra |
op_relation |
Parker TC, Sanderman J, Holden RD, Blume-Werry G, Sjögersten S, Large D, Castro-Díaz M, Street LE, Subke J & Wookey PA (2018) Exploring drivers of litter decomposition in a greening Arctic: Results from a transplant experiment across a treeline. Ecology, 99 (10), pp. 2284-2294. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2442 http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27641 doi:10.1002/ecy.2442 29981157 WOS:000446270400016 2-s2.0-85052612946 971089 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/27641/1/Parker_et_al-2018-Ecology.pdf |
op_rights |
© 2018 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Ecological Society of America This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2442 |
container_title |
Ecology |
container_volume |
99 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
2284 |
op_container_end_page |
2294 |
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1766300979347587072 |