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103 results for “plant litter”
Plant and litter cover estimates derived from overhead microplot photos in the Cross-Scale Interactions Study (CSIS) at Jornada Basin LTER, 2013-ongoing
This dataset contains plant and litter cover estimates derived from overhead photos collected from microplots in a long-term experiment (2013-present) of cross-scale interactions (CSIs) at the Jornada Basin LTER site in southern New Mexico, U.S.A. Experimental treatments were initiated in 2013 at 15 experimental blocks, each with 4 treatment plots: plant-scale herbicide of mesquite shrubs, patch-scale connectivity modifiers (ConMods), herbicide + ConMods, control without manipulations. Repeat, overhead (downward-looking) photographs of ten "microplots" in each plot were taken for estimation of litter, soil, and vegetation cover in the experimental treatment and control plots over time. Photographs were rotated and then cropped to provide standardized areas, and then were analyzed with USDA SamplePoint software to determine coverage by ~27 plant, litter or other cover classes on a 100 point grid. Raw and corrected cover estimates are provided. This study is ongoing and new data will be added annually. Cover estimates are derived from photos in EDI dataset knb-lter-jrn.210413004.
Canopy litter biomass:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes
In 1996 E142 was established in field D on top of the E004 macroplots. E004 was conducted in fields A, B, C and D by Dave Tilman. The purpose of E004 was to see what effect NH4NO3 addition has on large areas over a longer period of time with exposure to naturally-occurring levels of herbivory. The nutrient addition treatments in E004, E142 plots have been applied annually since 1982. These experiments, along with others at Cedar Creek, examine the community and ecosystem consequences of chronic nutrient loading.
Decomposition of Microstegium vimineum litter, plants grew through the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge in 2019. Litter used in this experiment naturally senesced in the fall 2019, decomposition data collected through 2020. Plants were infected or not-infected with the foliar fungal pathogen Bipolaris gigantea during the 2019 growing season.
Decomposition of plant litter, facilitated primarily by microbial decomposers, plays a critical role in biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem function. Emerging pathogens have the potential to impact litter decomposition by altering the chemical composition and associated microbial community of host tissue. Here, we compared litter decomposition of the invasive grass Microstegium vimineum collected from sites with Bipolaris leaf spot symptoms and sites with no apparent disease symptoms in a common garden experiment. Our results revealed that leaf tissue from litter from non-infected sites decomposed more rapidly through the spring than litter from infected sites. Differences in fungal composition between infected and non-infected litter at the start of the experiment largely persisted through the summer. Our work demonstrates that pathogen colonization may facilitate the persistence of infected host litter, potentially slowing the return of nutrients to the environmental pool while also promoting the survival and dispersal of primary inoculum the following season.
Leaf litter capture in the carnivorous pitcher plant, <em>Sarracenia purpurea</em>: a preliminary study
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Environmental conditions modulate warming effects on plant litter decomposition globally
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Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest: soil, litter, plant and microbial attributes on mycorrhizae litter decomposition plots
Studies show mycorrhizal fungi can influence leaf litter decomposition in a variety of ways, but the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi on litter decay in forests vary widely across published reports. We experimentally reduced the presence of fine roots and their associated mycorrhizal fungi by soil trenching within a series of plots spanning a gradient of mycorrhizal dominance containing from 96% AM to 100% ECM-associated trees at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in Woodstock, NH. We incubated four species of leaf litter in mesh decomposition bags in areas with reduced access to roots and mycorrhizal fungi and in adjacent areas with intact roots and mycorrhizal fungi. After 608 days of decomposition (November 2017 through July 2019), we found that litter decayed more rapidly in the presence of fine roots and mycorrhizal hyphae in all plots, regardless of dominant tree mycorrhizal type. Root and mycorrhizal exclusion did not affect enzyme activities on decomposing litter or soil microbial community composition. Despite reports that both AM and ECM fungi may reduce litter decay rate, our results indicate that AM and ECM-associated fine roots stimulate litter decomposition.
Plant Litter Decomposition at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (1990-1998)
The long-term goal of the decomposition study was to document the effects of climate variation on decomposition of major plant litter-types. The project began in 1989 and underwent changes of locations and litter types. The long-term litter types included black grama, Indian rice grass, juniper, and creosote. Â Mass loss of the litter types can be compared to precipitation and other meteorological factors obtained at nearby locations.
Data from: Invertebrate phenology modulates the effect of the leaf economics spectrum on litter decomposition rate across 41 subtropical woody plant species
<ol> <li>Litter quality and decomposers are critical to carbon and nutrient cycling through litter decomposition. However, how relationships between litter quality and invertebrate detritivores change litter mass loss through time is poorly known. Species' initial leaf litter quality, as a legacy of their position on the "leaf economics spectrum" (LES), may determine the invertebrate contribution to litter mass loss. This contribution may change through time, as both population peaks of invertebrate detritivores and litter quality of given species will change through time.</li> <li>Here we introduce invertebrate phenology into a conceptual model of drivers of litter mass loss. We hypothesized that in the early decomposition period, LES can predict litter decomposability with or without a strong invertebrate contribution, i.e., litter with higher nutrient content would decompose faster. But in the later decomposition period, when higher quality litter will already have decomposed too much and lower quality litters have still been less degraded, a strong invertebrate peak would coincide with relatively more consumption of initially lower quality litters; this would lead to a hump-back relationship between leaf litter mass loss and initial LES position in this period.</li> <li>We tested our hypothesis through a one-year field decomposition experiment using leaf litter of 41 woody species in each of two sites in subtropical forest in China; only one of these sites had a strong late peak of leaf litter-feeding moth larvae in the litter layer.</li> <li>LES score of litter species had a positive linear relationship with litter mass loss before the key invertebrate consumer peaks in the litter layer. However, with the invertebrates peaking later into the decomposition process, the invertebrate consumption peaked at initially lower quality litters, which altered the species' decomposability trajectory on the LES, consistent with the hypothesized hump-back relationship between leaf litter mass loss and LES. This phenomenon resulted in a strongly reduced slope of cumulative mass loss on initial LES score across species.</li> <li>Our finding highlights the importance of considering interactions between the timing of detritivore activities and the timing of litter quality for better understanding the relationships between soil animals and ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling.</li> </ol>
Data from: Urbanization and plant invasion alter the structure of litter microarthropod communities
<p>Anthropogenic activity underpins the creation of urban ecosystems, often with introduced or invasive species playing a large role in structuring ecological communities. While the effects of urbanization on charismatic taxa such as birds, bees or butterflies have received much attention, the impacts on small and inconspicuous organisms remain poorly understood.</p> <p>Here, we assess how the community structure of leaf litter-inhabiting microarthropods in city parks varies along an urbanization gradient in Toronto, Canada. At each park, we established paired forest understory plots which were either dominated by native vegetation or dog-strangling vine (<em>Vincetoxicum rossicum</em>), an invasive species that is spreading throughout northeastern North America and abundant in urban areas. We compared microarthropod richness, abundance, and diversity in ecological traits between invaded and non-invaded plots as well as compositional dissimilarities among plots across the urbanization gradient.</p> <p>We recorded 123 genera and found: i) there was a negative effect of urbanization on microarthropod richness and abundance but only in invaded plots; ii) richness and abundance increased continuously with urbanization in non-invaded plots, but peaked at intermediate urbanization levels in invaded plots; and iii) there was significant turnover with increasing urbanization, with distinct communities represented in highly urbanized areas compared to less urbanized areas, regardless of whether invaded. We also found litter microarthropod richness and abundance increased with soil ammonium and decreased with nitrate. These trends were especially strong for fungivorous microarthropods, however there was no relationship between soil nutrients and urbanization or invasion.</p> <p>Urbanization and biological invasion drive biodiversity change, and there is a need to disentangle these effects on ecological communities and related ecosystem processes. We show microarthropod communities change with urbanization, with the effects of invasion most prominent in non-urban areas. Here, there is high richness and abundance but low ecological trait diversity, possibly because certain feeding traits are excluded and others overrepresented.</p> <p>Understanding of urban ecological systems must include knowledge of the microarthropods that interact widely across food webs, form distinct communities in highly urban areas, and drive many of the important ecological functions upon which people in cities depend.</p>
Data from: Acceleration or deceleration of litter decomposition by herbivory depends on nutrient availability through intraspecific differences in induced plant resistance traits
1. Herbivores often induce changes in plant defensive chemistry or nutrient content that may respectively inhibit or promote microbial decomposition of senesced litter. Often the directional impact of herbivores on decomposition is considered to be a property of a species or ecosystem. While rarely explored, intraspecific plasticity in the induction of defensive strategies across environmental gradients may also result in divergent impacts of herbivores on decomposition (deceleration vs. acceleration). 2. Here, we examined how soil nutrient conditions determine after-life effects of herbivory, using nine goldenrod (Solidago altissima) genotypes grown across four levels of nutrient supply and with or without grasshopper herbivory. In this species, herbivory induces defensive traits in genotypes grown in high soil nutrient conditions but induces tolerance (compensatory growth) in low nutrient conditions. We combined senesced litter from each treatment with a common soil inoculum in experimental microcosms and measured soil respiration and litter mass loss over 100 days as estimates of decomposition. 3. Plant genotype, nutrient environment, and herbivory all had significant effects on decomposition. The legacy effect of herbivory overwhelmed the positive effects of high soil nutrient supply on decomposition. This significant herbivory nutrient environment interaction meant that herbivore-induced plants grown in high nutrient environments produced litter that was more resistant to microbial breakdown than litter from the same genotype not exposed to herbivory. But the opposite occurred at low nutrient levels where litter from herbivore-induced plants was most readily decomposed. Further we mechanistically tie nutrient and herbivory legacy treatments to decomposition rates through predictable changes in leaf trait expression. Lastly, we demonstrate a significant correlation among herbivore growth rates on the living tissue and decomposition efficiencies by the microbial community of the senesced tissue, suggesting that herbivores and microbes perceive the "quality" of the induced substrate similarly. 4. Synthesis: Herbivore-induced changes in leaf palatability and trait expression due to defense induction or compensatory growth can cascade through to either promote or inhibit the decomposability of leaf litter within a single species. These findings offer mechanistic understanding of how spatial heterogeneity in ecosystem process rates can be generated by spatial variation in herbivory and nutrient availability.
Plant litter loss exacerbates drought influences on grasslands
<p><span>Plant litter is known to affect soil, community, and ecosystem properties. However, we know little about the capacity of litter to modulate grassland responses to climate change. Using a 7-year litter removal experiment in a semiarid grassland, here we examined how litter removal interacts with consecutive droughts to affect soil environments, plant community composition, and ecosystem function. Litter loss exacerbates the negative impacts of drought on grasslands. </span><span>L</span><span>itter removal increased soil temperature but reduced soil moisture and nitrogen mineralization, which substantially increased the negative impacts of drought on primary productivity and the abundance of perennial rhizomatous graminoids. Moreover, complete litter removal shifted plant community composition from grass-dominated to forb-dominated, and reduced species and functional group asynchrony, resulting in lower ecosystem temporal stability. Our results suggest that ecological processes that lead to reduction in litter, such as burning, grazing, and haying, may render ecosystems more vulnerable and impair the capacity of grasslands to withstand drought events.</span></p>
Photodegradation of plant litter cuticles enhances microbial decomposition by increasing uptake of non-rainfall moisture
<p>Litter decomposition plays a central role in carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. In drylands, which cover 40% of the Earth's land surface, photodegradation and biotic decomposition driven by non-rainfall moisture are important mechanisms of litter decay, though studies have only recently begun examining interactions between these two processes. We describe a novel priming mechanism in which photodegradation and biotic decay of the cuticle of plant litter increases litter absorption of non-rainfall moisture (fog, dew, and water vapor), supporting greater microbial decomposition.</p> <p>We used several field experiments in a coastal fog desert and a series of in situ observations to demonstrate a relationship between solar radiation, cuticle integrity, water absorption rates, and mass loss.</p> <p>Experimentally attenuating solar radiation for 36 months slowed mass loss, reduced cuticle degradation, and decreased litter moisture uptake relative to litter under ambient sunlight controls. In a separate field experiment, removing the cuticle of recently senesced grass tillers increased mass loss four-fold over 6 months relative to controls. Tillers with degraded cuticles also absorbed 3.8 times more water following an overnight dew event than did those with intact cuticles. Finally, fungal growth was consistently greater on the sun-facing side of in situ tillers than on the shaded side, coincident with greater cuticle degradation.</p> <p>We present a conceptual model where the cuticle of plant litter acts as a water-resistant barrier that is first degraded by solar radiation and surficial microbes, increasing litter's ability to absorb enough water during non-rainfall moisture events to support substantial biotic decomposition inside the tissue. Considering how photodegradation and non-rainfall moisture are both substantial drivers of litter decomposition in drylands, understanding how they interact under realistic field conditions will help us better predict how these systems are responding to changing climate regimes.</p>
Plant litter chemistry controls coarse-textured soil carbon dynamics
<p>1. As soils store more carbon (C) than the Earth's atmosphere and terrestrial biomass together, the balance between soil C uptake in the form of soil organic matter and release as CO2 upon its decomposition is a critical determinant in the global C cycle regulating our planet's climate. Although plant litter is the predominant source of C fueling both soil C build-up and losses, the issue of how litter chemistry influences this balance remains unresolved.</p> <p>2. As a contribution to solving that issue, we traced the fate of C during near-complete decomposition of 13C-labelled leaf and root litters from 12 plant species in a coarse-textured soil. We separated the soil organic carbon (SOC) into mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) and particulate organic matter (POM) pools, and investigated how 14 litter chemical traits affected novel SOC formation and native SOC mineralization (i.e., the priming effect) in these soil fractions.</p> <p>3. We observed an overall net increase in SOC due to the addition of litter, which was stronger for root than for leaf litters. The presumed stable MAOM-C pool underwent both substantial stabilization and mineralization, whereas the presumably less stable POM-C pool showed substantial stabilization and reduced mineralization. Overall, the initial increase in soil C mineralization was fully counterbalanced by a later decrease in native soil C mineralization. POM-C formation as well as MAOM-C formation and mineralization were positively related to the initial litter lignin concentration and negatively to that of the nitrogen leachates, whereas the opposite was observed for POM-C mineralization.</p> <p>4. Synthesis. Our results highlight the importance of litter chemical traits for SOC formation, and stabilization, destabilization, and mineralization. In our coarse-textured soil, the amount of MAOM-C did not change despite large C fluxes through this pool. The litter chemical traits that drove these processes differed from those frequently reported for fine-textured soils far from mineral-associated C saturation. To account for these discrepancies, we propose an integrative perspective in which litter quality and soil texture interactively control soil C fluxes by modulating several SOC stabilization and destabilization mechanisms. Irrespective, our results open new critical perspectives for managing soil C pools globally.</p>
Standing and shed litters alter plant growth in disturbed and undisturbed soils differently
<p>Plant species affect key ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling and overall ecosystem productivity through their litter. The outcome of litter effects is largely determined by its decomposability, which directly effects soil properties. If litter remains standing or unshed (i.e. marcescent), its final decomposability can be increased by photodegradation of recalcitrant structures (like lignin). If the litter is immediately shed, its decomposability largely depends on its original nutrient content. Moreover, plant species may affect soil also through other, more direct effects. It is however unknown whether marcescent and immediately shed litters affect soil, and by that plants, differently, whether direct effects of plants on soil interact with those of marcescent and shed litters, and whether these interactions are consistent under different soil conditions.</p> <p>We set up a pot experiment, where we tested the effects of originally marcescent and shed litters (both added on the soil surface of the pots) on three grassland species (<em>Bromus erectus</em>, <em>Filipendula vulgaris</em>, and <em>Plantago media</em>) in contrasting soils from long-term stable ancient grassland and grassland restored on arable land 20 years before. We also tested how litter types and plant species affect soil chemical properties and microbial community (characterised by PLFA markers).</p> <p>Marcescent litter contained a lower amount of nutrients, but still increased plant biomass more than shed litter, although only for <em>F. vulgaris</em> (likely due to mobilisation of soil nutrients).</p> <p>The effect of litter on soil chemical properties and microbial community was low. These were largely affected by the plant species growing in the pot. The effect of these species on the microbial community was stronger in the undisturbed soil of ancient grasslands, while plant species affected mainly chemical properties in disturbed soil of restored grasslands. <em>B. erectus</em> slowed down the decomposition of both litter types in restored grassland soil.</p> <p>The effect of marcescent litter on living plants was significant but species-specific and depended on soil conditions. Marcescence seems to have a stronger effect on plants in disturbed soil, which indicates its importance for recovery of the ecosystem after disturbance.</p>
Optical traits perform equally well as directly-measured functional traits in explaining the impact of an invasive plant on litter decomposition
<p>1. Functional traits can help elucidate and predict the impact of invasive plant species on ecosystem functioning. Yet, this approach requires comprehensive and labor-intensive trait collection campaigns, covering intraspecific trait variation of both the invader and native species in the invaded community. One potential way to overcome these logistic constraints is using hyperspectral remote sensing technology to efficiently quantify functional trait values. Although such spectrally derived or 'optical' traits are known to closely link to directly-measured functional traits, little research has explored how well these optical traits perform in assessing invader-induced ecosystem impact. 2. Here, we explored the trait-mediated impact of the invasive Rosa rugosa on litter decomposition and evaluated whether optical traits perform equally well as directly-measured traits in predicting litter decomposition variation. We collected data on species-specific functional traits, leaf hyperspectral reflectance and standardized 'tea bag index' litter decomposition across 25 invaded and 25 uninvaded coastal grassland plots. The selected traits were all potentially related to litter decomposition and covered the leaf economics spectrum, additional leaf structural components and competitive ability. Optical traits were quantified through a combination of a physical radiative transfer model inversion and vegetation indices calculations. 3. Invasion significantly increased the stabilization factor, i.e. the amount of resulting recalcitrant litter. Invader impact on litter decomposition could be entirely explained by changes it induced in the functional traits of the native community, rather than by the invader's traits itself. More specifically, the invader pushed the invaded community towards traits associated with high litter quality. Optical traits performed equally well as directly-measured traits in explaining the invasion impact on the stabilization factor (R2= 41.9% vs. 38.5%). Furthermore, the interpretation of the results based on optical traits resulted in a similar functional understanding of the invader impact. 4. Synthesis: Our results indicate the potential of hyperspectral data to explain changes in ecosystem functioning. The combination of radiative transfer models and vegetation indices allowed to extract all relevant trait information from the hyperspectral data. This framework thus presents a practical short-cut to assess relevant leaf traits, requiring only a limited amount of field trait measurements.</p>
How detritivores, plant traits and time modulate coupling of leaf versus woody litter decomposition rates across species
<p>1. Plant functional traits are increasingly used to understand ecological relationships and (changing) ecosystem functions. For understanding ecosystem-level biogeochemistry, we need to understand how (much) traits co-vary between different plant organs across species, and its implications for litter decomposition. However, we do not know how the degree of synchronous variation in decomposition rates between organs across species could be influenced by different keystone invertebrates decomposing different senesced plant organs, especially in warm-climate forests. Here we asked whether interspecific patterns in wood and leaf decomposition rates and in the spectra of resource economics traits underpinning them, co-vary across woody species; and how (much) the keystone invertebrate decomposers of the litter of these organs enhance or lower such co-variation of decomposition rates through time. </p> <p>2. We addressed these questions through an 18-month "common-garden" decomposition experiment using leaf, twig and branch litter of 41 woody species in two distant subtropical forest sites in east China. We quantified the effects of leaf, twig, and branch functional traits and their respective key invertebrates (moth larvae, termites) on the decomposition rates of those organs. </p> <p>3. Interspecific variation in wood traits was partly decoupled from that in leaf traits across species, while strong coupling was found between twigs and branches. The co-variation between leaf and woody organ decomposition rates was altered dynamically through the shifting activities of the key decomposers, which created non-linear relationships of invertebrate litter consumption as a function of species rankings along the resource economic trait spectra of leaves and branches.</p> <p>4. The deviations from coupling of decomposition rates between organs were likely caused by combinations of three mechanisms: (1) (de-)coupling between organs of other traits, not commonly considered in resource economics spectra (e.g., resins) (2) leaf and wood decomposers having specific diet requirements, and (3) temporal patterns of the decomposers' activity.</p> <p>5. Synthesis. Our study highlights the importance of considering the different ways by which invertebrate detritivores drive decomposition processes through time. Under the ongoing biodiversity decline, future research would benefit from a better understanding of the role of the dynamic interactions between detritivore activities and plant functional traits on the carbon turnover in ecosystems.</p>
Optical traits perform equally well as directly-measured functional traits in explaining the impact of an invasive plant on litter decomposition
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Climatic stress-induced changes in plant chemistry alter the compound-specific degradation of litter during decomposition
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Plant community composition in response to litter removal in Riverside, California, USA, 2021-2023
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Data from: Interaction between plants through litter input in mangrove succession in the Red River Delta
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