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When a tree falls : how nurse logs nurture new life in the forest
\"A tree suns and sways in the forest. She is a place to grow, to rest, and to shelter. But what happens after a tree falls? The answer will surprise you, and it will make your heart soar. This lyrical picture book explores the life of a tree from its days lifting up toward the light housing wildlife in its boughs, to doing much of the same thing from a very different vantage point: this time, after having fallen, either due to wildfire or drought or from just living out its long life. A tree's second act is often as a nurse log, which is key to a forest's survival. Nurse logs provide a nutrient-rich space for new seedlings to thrive, and with better access to light and nourishment from the decaying trunk. They shelter small animals and host different species of fungi, lichens, mosses and ferns. And, over time, a new tree's roots wrap around the log, beginning the cycle anew\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Synergistic effects
• Litter decomposition plays a key role in nutrient cycling across ecosystems, yet to date, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the nonadditive decomposition effects in leaf litter mixing experiments.
• To fill that gap, we compiled 69 individual studies with the aim to perform two meta-analyses on nonadditive effects.
• We show that a significant synergistic effect (faster decomposition in mixtures than expected) occurs at a global scale, with an average increase of 3–5% in litter mixtures. In particular, low-quality litter in mixtures shows a significant synergistic effect, while additive effects are observed for high-quality species. Additionally, synergistic effects turn into antagonistic effects when soil fauna are absent or litter is in very late stages of decomposition (nearhumus). In contrast to temperate and tropical areas, studies in boreal regions show significant antagonistic effects.
• Our two meta-analyses provide a systematic evaluation of nonadditive effects in mixed litter decomposition studies and show that litter quality alters the effects of litter mixing. Our results indicate that nutrient transfer, soil fauna and inhibitory secondary compounds can influence mixing effects. We also highlight that synergistic and antagonistic effects occur concurrently, and the final litter mixing effect results from the interplay between them.
Journal Article
Super Manny cleans up!
\"Manny and his friend Gertie join forces to clean up their local park--because every superhero needs a planet worth saving\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Nitrogen Additions and Litter Decomposition: A Meta-Analysis
We conducted a meta-analysis of previously published empirical studies that have examined the effects of nitrogen (N) enrichment on litter decomposition. Our objective was to provide a synthesis of existing data that comprehensively and quantitatively evaluates how environmental and experimental factors interact with N additions to influence litter mass loss. Nitrogen enrichment, when averaged across all studies, had no statistically significant effect on litter decay. However, we observed significant effects of fertilization rate, site-specific ambient N-deposition level, and litter quality. Litter decomposition was inhibited by N additions when fertilization rates were 2-20 times the anthropogenic Ndeposition level, when ambient N deposition was 5-10 kg N· ha-1· yr-1, or when litter quality was low (typically high-lignin litters). Decomposition was stimulated at field sites exposed to low ambient N deposition (<5 kg N· ha-1· yr-1) and for high-quality (low-lignin) litters. Fertilizer type, litterbag mesh size, and climate did not influence the litter decay response to N additions.
Journal Article
What matters
In this picture book, the ripple effect of one child's small action shows how we can all make a big environmental difference.
Book
Litter decomposition: what controls it and how can we alter it to sequester more carbon in forest soils
Key recent developments in litter decomposition research are reviewed. Long-term inter-site experiments indicate that temperature and moisture influence early rates of litter decomposition primarily by determining the plants present, suggesting that climate change effects will be small unless they alter the plant forms present. Thresholds may exist at which single factors control decay rate. Litter decomposes faster where the litter type naturally occurs. Elevated CO₂ concentrations have little effect on litter decomposition rates. Plant tissues are not decay-resistant; it is microbial and biochemical transformations of materials into novel recalcitrant compounds rather than selective preservation of recalcitrant compounds that creates stable organic matter. Altering single characteristics of litter will not substantially alter decomposition rates. Nitrogen addition frequently leads to greater stabilization into humus through a combination of chemical reactions and enzyme inhibition. To sequester more C in soil, we need to consider not how to slow decomposition, but rather how to divert more litter into humus through microbial and chemical reactions rather than allowing it to decompose. The optimal strategy is to have litter transformed into humic substances and then chemically or physically protected in mineral soil. Adding N through fertilization and N-fixing plants is a feasible means of stimulating humification.
Journal Article
Biodiversity in dead wood
\"Fossils document the existence of trees and wood-associated organisms from almost 400 million years ago, and today there are between 400,000 and 1 million wood-inhabiting species in the world. This is the first book to synthesise the natural history and conservation needs of wood-inhabiting organisms. Presenting a thorough introduction to biodiversity in decaying wood, the book studies the rich diversity of fungi, insects and vertebrates that depend upon dead wood. It describes the functional diversity of these organisms and their specific habitat requirements in terms of host trees, decay phases, tree dimensions, microhabitats and the surrounding environment. Recognising the threats posed by timber extraction and forest management, the authors also present management options for protecting and maintaining the diversity of these species in forests as well as in agricultural landscapes and urban parks\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The importance of litter traits and decomposers for litter decomposition
Summary Plant leaf litter comprises the major common source of energy and nutrients in forested soil and freshwater ecosystems world‐wide. However, despite the similarity of physical and biochemical processes, generalizations across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems regarding litter decomposition drivers remain elusive. We re‐analysed data from a published field decomposition experiment conducted in two ecosystems (forest floors and streams) across five biomes (from the tropics to subarctic) with increasing decomposer community complexity (microbes, microbes and mesofauna, microbes and meso‐ and macrofauna). Using a wide litter quality gradient (15 litter combinations), we aimed to disentangle the roles of decomposer community complexity from that of leaf litter traits (18 traits encompassing four broad trait categories: nutrients, C quality, physical structure and stoichiometry) on litter C and N loss. Comparisons of decomposition drivers between ecosystems were evaluated across and within biomes. Differences in environmental conditions (e.g. climate, soil/water fertility) and litter nutrients – with a particular focus on Mg and Ca – across biomes were the major drivers of litter C loss in both ecosystems, but decomposer complexity also played a prominent role in streams. Within biomes, we observed consistent effects of litter nutrients and stoichiometry on litter C and N loss between ecosystems, but the effects of decomposer complexity differed between streams and forest floors in the temperate, Mediterranean and tropical biomes. Our results highlight that, beyond the litter traits commonly identified as controlling decomposition (e.g. C, N and lignin), micronutrients (e.g. Mg and Ca) can also play an important, and globally consistent, role in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In addition, in forest streams the complexity of decomposer communities had similar importance as litter traits for predicting litter C and N turnover across all five biomes. The identification of common drivers in our large‐scale ecosystem comparison suggests a basis to develop common models across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems for C and N dynamics during decomposition. Future modelling efforts should account for the global similarities (litter micronutrient effects) and biome‐level differences (contingent decomposer effects) found between ecosystems. Lay Summary
Journal Article
Multiple mechanisms for trait effects on litter decomposition: moving beyond home‐field advantage with a new hypothesis
1. Evidence is growing that leaf litter generally decomposes faster than expected in its environment of origin, owing to specialization of litter and topsoil decomposer communities to break down litter encountered most often. Nevertheless, this home‐field advantage (HFA) in decomposition is inconsistently supported by experimental data and fails to account for situations where contrasting qualities of litter coexist within the same litter matrix. 2. In contrast to the HFA hypothesis, which expects a positive interaction between every litter species produced locally and the local decomposer communities irrespective of litter species quality, we define here an alternative substrate quality–matrix quality interaction (SMI) hypothesis that expects a continuum from positive to negative interaction between specific litters (substrates) and decomposer communities as specific litters and the ecosystem litter layer (i.e. the matrix, which drives local decomposer community composition) become increasingly dissimilar in quality. 3. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a reciprocal transplant decomposition experiment of eight leaf, six fine‐stem and nine fine‐root litter species from three neighbouring ecosystems of the subarctic biome: dry forest, riparian forest and forest‐surrounded pond; and characterized the quality (represented by lignin content and an integrated measure of carbon/nutrient economics) of each litter species and each ecosystem litter layer. 4. We found substantial overall effects of SMI on decomposition rates of leaf (20% explained variance), stem (14%) and root (15%) litters, although this effect was lower than the single effects of litter quality and microclimate (remaining explained variance). Despite being partly inconsistent across litter species, likely due to the complexity of litter quality–decomposer community relationships, the SMI hypothesis appeared more broadly applicable than the HFA hypothesis. 5. Synthesis. We demonstrate here that plant traits, likely via their control on litter and topsoil decomposer community composition, have indirect effects on litter breakdown rates, not only at the interface between ecosystems but also within ecosystems, with likely implications for many other ecosystems world‐wide. These results suggest functional variation in decomposer communities between ecosystems with respect to their efficiency to degrade litters with contrasting qualities, such as different lignolytic and detoxification activities but also contrasting efficiencies to degrade non‐recalcitrant tissues.
Journal Article
Home-field advantage of litter decomposition: from the phyllosphere to the soil
Plants often associate with specialized decomposer communities that increase plant litter breakdown, a phenomenon that is known as the 'home-field advantage' (HFA). Although the concept of HFA has long considered only the role of the soil microbial community, explicit consideration of the role of the microbial community on the foliage before litter fall (i.e. the phyllosphere community) may help us to better understand HFA. We investigated the occurrence of HFA in the presence vs absence of phyllosphere communities and found that HFA effects were smaller when phyllosphere communities were removed. We propose that priority effects and interactions between phyllosphere and soil organisms can help explain the positive effects of the phyllosphere at home, and suggest a path forward for further investigation.
Journal Article