Effect of litter quality on its decomposition in broadleaf and coniferous forest |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People''s Republic of China;2. College of Resources and Planning Sciences, Jishou University, Zhangjiajie 427000, People''s Republic of China;3. College of Life Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150000, People''s Republic of China;1. U.S. Geological Survey, National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20192, USA;2. Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 370 Prospect St., New Haven, CT 06511, USA;3. Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Droevendaalsesteeg 10, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands;4. University of Minnesota, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, 2004 Folwell Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA;1. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia;2. School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Arizona State University at the West Campus, Glendale, AZ 85306, USA;3. US Environmental Protection Agency, 960 College Station Rd, Athens, GA 30605, USA |
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| Abstract: | Recently there has been much interest in the effect of litter mixing as well as the effect of different forest habitats on the decomposition process. Our aim was to test two hypotheses: high quality litter promotes decomposition of poor quality litter, and litter decomposes faster in broadleaf than in coniferous forest. We conducted a litter mixing experiment using litterbags placed in two forest floors, in which treatments consisted of litter monocultures of each of two campy species (Castanopsis eyrei and Pinus massoniana), as well as mixtures of these two species. The results showed that C. eyrei leaves decomposed significantly faster in the coniferous habitat than in their native habitat. On the other hand, P. massoniana needles decomposed significantly faster in their native coniferous habitat than in the broadleaf habitat. In our experiment we found that the mixture had different effect on different quality litter. P. massoniana needles (poor quality) had a positive effect on the decomposition of C. eyrei leaves (high quality), while C. eyrei leaves had a negative effect on the decomposition of P. massoniana needles in the mixture case in both broadleaf and coniferous habitats. The diversity of the fungi identified from different litters varied among treatments and the mass loss was positively correlated with the Shannon–Weaver diversity index of fungi. It is suggested that fungi may be one of the major drivers to control the decomposition process. |
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