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30 results for “root litter”
Effects of Nitrogen Fertilization on Litter and Soil Decomposition: Fine Root Biomass and Chemistry
The influence of inorganic nitrogen (N) inputs on decomposition is poorly understood. Some prior studies suggest that N may reduce the decomposition of substrates with high concentrations of lignin via inhibitory effects on the activity of lignin-degrading enzymes, although such inhibition has not always been demonstrated. The purpose of E145 was to study the effects of nitrogen (N) addition on decomposition of seven substrates ranging in initial lignin concentrations (from 7.4 - 25.6%) over five years in eight different grassland and forest sites in central Minnesota.
Ectomycorrhizal fungal effects on soil carbon storage, root litter decomposition, and fungal necromass decomposition
This project investigates the impacts of ectomycorrhizal-saprotrophic fungal interactions on soil C storage and the decomposition of root litter and fungal necromass. Specifically, we conducted a field experiment wherein the ectomycorrhizal:saprotrophic fungal ratio was reduced via experimental trenching (with control plots left untrenched). From these plots we then measured bulk soil C stocks, particulate organic matter C stocks, mineral associated organic matter C stocks, and the decomposition of root litter and fungal necromass. The Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR) experiment name is e309 "The effects of mycelial morphology and mycorrhizal type on fungal necromass decomposition."
Long-term Carbon and Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Dynamics of Leaf and Fine Root Litter project (LIDET-Long-term Intersite Decomposition Experiment Team) data for the ARC, Arctic LTER. 1990 to 2000.
This file is from the Long-term Carbon and Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Dynamics of Leaf and Fine Root Litter project (LIDET-Long-term Intersite Decomposition Experiment Team). This file contains only the Arctic LTER data. In particular the mass looses over the ten year study. Three types of fine roots (graminoid, hardwood, and conifer), six types of leaf litter (which ranged in lignin/nitrogen ratio from 5 to 75), and wooden dowels were used for litter incubations over a ten year period.
Litter and root decomposition data for Saddle, 1993 - 1994.
Plant tissues, foliage, and roots were collected from Niwot Ridge tundra species and composited into separate 2-gm samples. Foliage was placed in 10x20 cm litter bags with a 2mm^2 mesh to allow entry of invertebrates. Root tissues were placed in 10x20 cm^2 polyester fabric bags to prevent loss of fine root particulates. The foliage litter bags were placed on the tundra surface and secured by 10-penny nails. Root bags were buried in slits 15 cm deep. Each of the 18 1-m^2 research plots, consisted of 2 rows of 5 surface litterbags each. The upper row (with respect to slope) served as the control. The lower row was treated with ammonium nitrate at a rate of 20 g per m^2. Nitrogen will be applied at 3 monthly intervals during each of the growing seasons for the duration of the study. Litter bags (1 surface and 1 buried from each control and treatment) were collected from each plot on 18 September 1993. Additional collections were scheduled to be made in spring and fall of 1994 and spring of 1995. The samples were to be analyzed for changes in total mass, N concentration, and variation in C fractions.
Data from: Different dynamics and controls of enzyme activities of leaf and root litter during decomposition
<p>Litter enzyme dynamics are strongly shaped by litter, soil, and microbial attributes during decomposition, however, enzyme dynamics of leaf and root litter remains unresolved due to contrasting differences in rates and controls on leaf and root litter decomposition.</p> <p>Herein, we conducted a 784-day field experiment to evaluate the relative importance of litter, alkaline soil, and microbial attributes to enzyme activities and their C:N:P stoichiometry of leaf and root litter during decomposition under subtropical land use change of China.</p> <p>We found that only the C- and N-acquiring enzyme activities of shrub leaves were greater than those of wood and crop, and there was no significant difference in P-acquiring enzyme activity among the three species of leaves. Both the C- and P-acquiring enzyme activities of crop roots were significantly lower than those of afforested lands (i.e., woodland and shrubland). The N-acquiring activities of wood roots were significantly lower than those of shrub and crop. At the temporal dynamics, the C-, N-, and P-acquiring enzyme activities of the leaves decreased with mass loss, which was affected by the shift in litter nutrients (e.g., N and P) and soil moisture during decomposition. In contrast, the three enzyme activities of roots increased with mass loss, largely due to the increase in microbial biomass of bacteria regulated by litter stoichiometry. The enzymatic C:nutrient (N and P) ratios declined with mass loss, but the enzymatic P:N ratios remained relatively constant with mass loss during the leaf litter decomposition. Whereas, both of the enzymatic C:nutrient ratios and enzymatic P:N ratios decreased with mass during the root litter decomposition. Our results showed that the enzymatic C:N:P stoichiometry of decaying leaves and roots was predominantly predicted by microbial biomass and bacterial biomass, respectively.</p> <p>Overall, we outlined the pattern of contrasting contributions of litter, soil, and microbial attributes to enzyme dynamics during decomposition, which provided a framework for better understanding litter C, N, and P dynamics in relation to microbial resource allocation strategy during decomposition.</p>
Data: Salt marsh litter quality and decomposition under sea-level rise scenarios: from leaves to fine absorptive roots
<p>litter chemical characteristic in salt marshes, including fine absorptive roots, fine transportive roots, rhizomes and leaves. </p> <p>mass loss of litter and chemical characteristics of those litter under sea level scenarios (manipulated in situ)</p>
The coordination between leaf and fine root litter decomposition and the difference of their controlling factors
<p><strong>Aim:</strong> As the two largest components of plant detritus input, leaf and root litter together determines ecosystem vegetation turnover and nutrient cycling rates. However, it remains unknown the similarities and differences between the controlling factors for their decomposition. We evaluated the relationship between leaf and fine root litter decomposition across biomes, and analyzed how litter traits, climate, soil conditions and decomposers shape their relationship.</p> <p><strong>Location:</strong> Global.</p> <p><strong>Time Period:</strong> 1984–2020.</p> <p><strong>Major Taxa Studied</strong>: Vascular plant.</p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> We collected 352 paired leaf and fine root decomposition rates (k values) and ancillary traits, climate, soil condition and decomposer abundance data from 88 sites spanning the major global biomes. Boosted regression trees (BRTs) were applied to partition the factors that control root and leaf decomposition rates.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Averaged across all biomes, leaf litter decomposes significantly faster (kleaf=0.72) than fine root (kroot=0.42). The BRTs indicated that plant traits best explained the variance in both leaf and root litter decomposition. The key chemical traits of leaf litter and fine root, including C:N, [P], N:P, [lignin], [cellulose], [NSCs] and [tannins], were positively correlated. Therefore, leaf and fine root k values were positively correlated within and across biomes, even after removing the influence of climate, soil conditions and decomposers. However, climate and decomposers had different impacts on leaf and fine root decomposition. Climate induced a greater impact on fine root litter decomposition, whereas decomposers had a greater influence on leaf litter decomposition.</p> <p><strong>Main Conclusions:</strong> Our finding indicates that plants evolve a coordinated nutrient supply and demand strategy. The high nutrient demand plants produce labile leaf and fine root litter, which decompose fast to meet their high nutrient requirements. However, leaf and fine root decomposition are also mediated by different combinations of trait, climate, soil condition and decomposer factors, which weakens the coordination between leaf and fine root decomposition.</p>
Salt marsh litter quality and decomposition under sea-level rise scenarios: from leaves to fine absorptive roots
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Root litter quality incubation experiment
<p>The dataset contains data of a 2-year incubation experiment of C4 roots litter added to a C3 soil. The soil was sampled after 6, 12 and 24 months and fractionated into particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral associated organic carbon (MAOC) and each fraction (plus the bulk soil) was measured for total carbon content as well as the abundance of the stable isotope 13C, to distinguish between old (native) and new (added) carbon. There are two files: One contains the raw data with measured C contents, delta 13C values, fraction weights and the subsequently calculated amounts of new and old carbon in all fractions. The second file is related to the first, but contains the final dataset which was used to produce the graphs and tables in the paper.</p>
Root litter decomposition is suppressed in species mixtures and in the presence of living roots
<p>Plant species diversity and identity can significantly modify litter decomposition, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, particularly for root litter. Here, we aimed to disentangle the mechanisms by which plant species diversity alters root litter decomposition We hypothesised that 1) interactions between species in mixed communities result in litter that decomposes faster than litter produced in monocultures; 2) litter decomposition is accelerated in the presence of living plants, especially when the litter and living plant identities are matched (known as home field advantage).</p> <p>Monocultures and a mixture of four common grassland species were established to obtain individual litter and a 'natural' root litter mixture. An 'artificial' mixed litter was created using litter from monocultures, mixed in the same proportions as the species composition in the natural litter mixtures based on qPCR measurements. These six root litter types were incubated in four monocultures, a four-species mixture, and an unplanted soil.</p> <p>Root decomposition was strongly affected by root litter identity and the presence, but not diversity, of living roots. Mixed-species litter decomposed slower than expected based on the decomposition of single-species litters. In addition, the presence of living roots suppressed decomposition independent of the match between litter and living plant identities. Decomposition was not significantly different between the 'natural' and 'artificial' root litter mixtures, indicating that root-root interactions in species mixtures did not affect root chemical quality.</p> <p>Synthesis: Suppressed decomposition in the presence of living roots indicates that interactions between microbial communities associated with living roots and root litter control root litter decomposition. As we found no support for the importance of home field advantage or interspecific root interactions in modifying decomposition, suppressed decomposition of mixed-species litter seems to be primarily driven by chemical rather than biotic interactions.</p>
Data from: Soil moisture mediates the effect of plant belowground carbon allocation on the decomposition of root litter in a subtropical forest
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Root litter decomposition is suppressed in species mixtures and in the presence of living roots
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Data from: Different dynamics and controls of enzyme activities of leaf and root litter during decomposition
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N dynamics of leaf and root litter decomposition
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The coordination between leaf and fine root litter decomposition and the difference of their controlling factors
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Species‐specific root proliferation of tree seedlings in tropical litter: do nutrients matter?
<p>Litter decomposition mobilizes nutrients that sustain ecosystem productivity, but decomposition by-products may also hamper root proliferation by phytotoxicity. The aim of this study was to assess the litter substrate preferences of tropical tree seedlings in relation to litter chemical traits. We characterized 44 litter types (11 species at 4 decomposition ages; 0, 30, 90 and 180 days) for nutrients (N, P, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Fe and Zn) and proximate chemical parameters (cellulose, extractive, lignin and C) and tested the effect of such litter materials on seedling root growth of Albizia procera, Dalbergia sissoo and Terminalia arjuna. A. procera root growth was inhibited by all litter types and ages, including conspecific materials, while different heterospecific litters had inhibitory or stimulatory effect on D. sissoo and T. arjuna root growth, compared to the control. Interestingly, inhibitory and stimulatory effects of heterospecific litters significantly changed with litter age, although with no clear-cut pattern among target species and litter species and age, while conspecific litters consistently inhibited root growth when aged, but not when fresh. Litter nutrient, extractive, C, cellulose and lignin showed no consistent association with root growth of tested plants. A. procera root growth was positively associated with Na content and N:P ratio. D. sissoo root growth was positively associated to C:N and lignin:N ratios, and negatively to K, Na and Zn content. Finally, T. arjuna root was positively associated to cellulose and N:P ratio, but negatively to extractive. We conclude that studied nutrient, cellulose and lignin do not consistently explain the species-specific response of root of tree seedlings to decomposing litter.</p>
Data from: Litter removal in a tropical rain forest reduces fine root biomass and production but litter addition has few effects
Many old-growth lowland tropical rain forests are potentially nutrient limited, and it has long been thought that many such forests maintain growth by recycling nutrients from decomposing litter. We investigated this by continuously removing (for ten years) freshly fallen litter from five (45 m x 45 m) plots, adding it to five other plots, there were five controls. From monthly measures over one year we show that litter removal caused lower: fine root (≤2 mm diameter) standing mass, fine root standing length, fine root length production and fine root length survivorship. Litter addition did not significantly change fine root mass or length or production. Nutrient concentrations in fine roots in litter removal plots were lower than those in controls for nitrogen (N), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), concentrations in fine roots in litter addition plots were higher for N and Ca. Chronic litter removal has resulted in reduced forest growth due to lack of nutrients, probably nitrogen. Conversely, long-term litter addition has had fewer effects.
Stronger effect of litter quality than microorganisms on leaf and root litter C and N loss at different decomposition stages following a subtropical land use change
<p>Litter decomposition contributes largely to global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling, and it is strongly determined by litter quality and microbial community composition in ways that are poorly understood. Here, we conducted a 2-year field litter decomposition experiment by collecting leaf and root litter of crops (from cropland), shrubs (from shrubland), and wood (from woodland) and placing samples for decomposition in woodland soil in central China to investigate the effects of litter quality and microbial community composition on C and N loss of leaf and root litter of three species under different decomposition stages. Our results showed that the leaf litter C and N losses of shrubs were significantly higher than those of crops and wood, whereas the root litter C and N losses of crops were significantly higher than those of shrubs and wood. Generally, the leaf litter C and N losses of the three species were higher on average than those of fine root litter under the whole decomposition period. For the C loss of the three species, litter lignin and phosphorus as well as initial litter quality were predominant drivers of root litter decomposition, while litter lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose concentrations were dominant for leaf litter decomposition. For N loss, litter stoichiometry and litter quality directly governed leaf and root litter N loss, and the initial litter quality largely regulated N loss at the late decomposition stage. Unexpectedly, the effect of microbial community composition on litter C and N loss was relatively weak and only exhibited an effect on litter C and N loss during the early stage of decomposition. Thus, our results revealed the huge disparity in C and N loss of plant species and litter types at different decomposition stages, which should be considered jointly when evaluating their roles in plant-soil feedbacks under global land use change.</p>
Effects of soil conditioning, root and shoot litter addition interact to determine the intensity of plant-soil feedback (dataset)
<p>Plant-soil feedback (PSF) is recognized as an important mechanism shaping plant communities and determining plant abundance and coexistence. Under natural conditions, plants affect the outcome of plant-soil interactions simultaneously by conditioning the soil by living roots and by litter inputs into the soil. However, most experimental studies only focus on one of the pathways, which limits our understanding of PSF in the field. </p> <p>Here, we simultaneously explored the effect of soil conditioning by living roots and of root and shoot litter addition on the performance of seven <em>Impatiens</em> species grown in a two-phase garden experiment. </p> <p>Soil conditioning negatively affected plant performance and the effect was at least partly explained by nutrient depletion. Root litter addition affected plant performance negatively and the results suggest that biotic effects such as pathogen transmission via the root litter played a role. The effects of root litter addition were more pronounced in control soil which, contrary to the conditioned soil, supposedly did not accumulate pathogens during the conditioning phase. Shoot litter addition increased soil nutrient levels, but had no impact on plant performance. However, presence of shoot litter aggravated the negative effects of root litter, probably due to increased amounts of nutrients available for soil biota and thus their faster growth and intensified effect on the plants. </p> <p><span></span></p> <p>Overall, our study suggests that root and shoot litter have contrasting roles in plant-soil interactions and understanding their separate and interactive effects together with effects of soil conditioning is crucial for assessing the complexity of PSF.</p>
Litter and root traits control soil microbial composition and enzyme activities in 28 common subtropical tree species
<p><span>1. </span><span>Plant trait-based approaches are frequently used to explore the linkages between aboveground plant communities and belowground ecosystem functions. However, the role of plant leaf litter and living root traits in driving soil microbial biomass, community composition, and enzyme activities has rarely been explored.</span></p> <p><span>2. </span><span>Here, we measured the soil microbial biomass, community composition and enzyme activities related to carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) acquisition under three-year-old monocultures of 28 common subtropical tree species in China.</span></p> <p><span>3. </span><span>We found that plant leaf litter and absorptive root traits, including leaf litter C content, litter water holding capacity, and root N content, were the three best predictors for soil microbial biomass and enzyme activities. In particular, resource-exploitative tree species with higher root N contents were associated with microbial communities with lower fungi to bacteria ratios and lower C- and P-acquisition enzyme activities. Tree species with higher leaf litter water holding capacity were associated with microbial resource acquisition strategies for C and P acquisition.</span></p> <p><span>4. </span><span>Synthesis: Our findings highlighted that plant leaf litter and root traits are important for mechanistically understanding the ecological linkage between the plant community and ecosystem functions.</span></p>
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