leaf litter decomposition

Microplastics, pervasive pollutants in aquatic environments, have been primarily studied for their impact on marine ecosystems. However, their effects on freshwater systems, particularly in forested phytotelmata habitats, remain understudied in Subtropical systems. This research examines the influence of varying microplastic concentrations (0.0, 200, 2,000, 20,000, and 200,000 ppm) on leaf litter breakdown of Inga vera (in bags of 10 and 0.05 mm mesh) and the naturally associated invertebrate community occurring in forested phytotelmata...

Climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances are increasing liana abundance and biomass in many tropical and subtropical forests. While the effects of living lianas on species diversity, ecosystem carbon, and nutrient dynamics are receiving increasing attention, the role of dead lianas in forest ecosystems has been little studied and is poorly understood. Trees and lianas coexist as the major woody components of forests worldwide, but they have very different ecological strategies, with lianas relying on trees for mechanical support...

Urban streams are affected by a complex combination of stressors, which modify physical habitat structure, flow regime, water quality, biological community composition, and ecosystem processes and services, thereby altering ecosystem structure and functioning. Rehabilitation projects have been undertaken in several countries to rehabilitate urban streams. However, stream rehabilitation is still rarely reported for neotropical regions. In addition, most studies focus on structural aspects, such as water quality, sediment control, and flood events, without considering ecosystem function indicators...

Microbial communities are not the easiest to manipulate experimentally in natural ecosystems. However, leaf litter - topmost layer of surface soil - is uniquely suitable to investigate the complexities of community assembly. Here, we reflect on over a decade of collaborative work to address this topic using leaf litter as a model system in southern California ecosystems. By leveraging a number of methodological advantages of the system, we have worked to demonstrate how four processes - selection, dispersal, drift, and diversification - contribute to bacterial and fungal community assembly and ultimately, impact community functioning...

Multiple facets of global change affect the earth system interactively, with complex consequences for ecosystem functioning and stability. Simultaneous climate and biodiversity change are of particular concern, because biodiversity may contribute to ecosystem resistance and resilience and may mitigate climate change impacts. Yet, the extent and generality of how climate and biodiversity change interact remain insufficiently understood, especially for the decomposition of organic matter, a major determinant of the biosphere-atmosphere carbon feedbacks...

Leaf litter decomposition is a major component of nutrient cycling which depends on the quality and quantity of the leaf material. Ash trees ( Fraxinus excelsior , decay time ∼ 0.4 years) are declining throughout Europe due to a fungal pathogen ( Hymenoscyphus fraxineus ), which is likely to alter biochemical cycling across the continent. The ecological impact of losing species with fast decomposing leaves is not well quantified. In this study we examine how decomposition of three leaf species with varying decomposition rates including ash, sycamore ( Acer pseudoplatanus, decay time ∼ 1...

Litter decomposition is a key ecosystem process, relevant for the release and storage of nutrients and carbon in soil. Soil fungi are one of the dominant drivers of organic matter decomposition, but fungal taxa differ substantially in their functional ability to decompose plant litter. Knowledge is mostly based on observational data and subsequent molecular analyses and in vitro studies have been limited to forest ecosystems. In order to better understand functional traits of saprotrophic soil fungi in grassland ecosystems, we isolated 31 fungi from a natural grassland and performed several in vitro studies testing for i) leaf and wood litter decomposition, ii) the ability to use carbon sources of differing complexity, iii) the enzyme repertoire...

In ecosystems, the rates of resource consumption by animals drive the flows of matter and energy. Consumption rates are known to vary according to consumer energy requirements, resource nutrient content and mechanical properties. The aim of our study is to determine how mechanical constraints, compared to energetic and nutritional constraints, explain the variation in leaf litter consumption rates by macrodetritivores. In particular, we focus on the impact of litter toughness. To this end, we propose a non-linear model describing leaf litter consumption rates of detritivore as a function of litter toughness...

Habitat degradation and associated reductions in ecosystem functions can be reversed by reintroducing or 'rewilding' keystone species. Rewilding projects have historically targeted restoration of processes such as grazing regimes or top-down predation effects. Few projects focus on restoring decomposition efficiency, despite the pivotal role decomposition plays in global carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. Here, we tested whether rewilding entire communities of detritivorous invertebrates and fungi can improve litter decomposition efficiency and restore detritivore communities during ecological restoration...

Freshwater ecosystems are affected by various stressors, such as contamination and exotic species, making them amongst the most imperilled biological systems on the planet. In Australia and elsewhere, copper is one of the most common metal contaminants in freshwater systems and the European carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) is one of the most pervasive and widespread invasive fish species. Copper (Cu) and carp can both directly affect primary production and decomposition, which are critical and interrelated nutrient cycling processes and ecosystem services...

Litter decomposition is an important process in ecosystem and despite recent research elucidating the significant influence of plant phylogeny on plant-associated microbial communities, it remains uncertain whether a parallel correlation exists between plant phylogeny and the community of decomposers residing in forest litter. In this study, we conducted a controlled litterbag experiment using leaf litter from ten distinct tree species in a central subtropical forest ecosystem in a region characterized by subtropical humid monsoon climate in China...

The effect of mixing litter on decomposition has received considerable attention in terrestrial and aquatic (but rarely in both) ecosystems, with a striking lack of consensus in the obtained results. We studied the decomposition of a mixture of poplar and alder in three terrestrial: aquatic exposures to determine (1) if the effect of mixing litter on mass loss, associated decomposers (fungal biomass, sporulation rates, and richness), and detritivores (abundance, biomass, and richness of invertebrate shredders) differs between the stream (fully aquatic exposure) and when litter is exposed to a period of terrestrial exposure prior to immersion and (2) the effect of the mixture across exposure scenarios...

Plant litter decomposition is a natural pathway of heavy metal cycling in soil ecosystems, but the dynamics of heavy metal release during litter decomposition are relatively poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of species, soil fauna and soil Cd addition on litter decomposition and Cd release dynamics. Therefore, we selected two plants, Solanum nigrum and S. lycopersicum with large differences in Cd accumulation capacity. First, they were enriched with Cd during the growing period and leaf litter was harvested after 6 months of pretreatment...

Aquatic biota of tropical temporary ponds typically experience a wide range of stressors that can drive the structure and dynamics of natural communities. Particularly in regions with intense agricultural activity, aquatic biota may not only experience predation pressure but also stress from pesticides that inadvertently enter the ponds. We increasingly understand how these different sources of stress affect classic model taxa under controlled laboratory conditions, but how predators and pesticides may jointly affect pond invertebrate communities is still unclear, particularly for tropical systems...

There is strong trait dependence in species-level responses to environmental change and their cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. However, there is little understanding of whether intraspecific trait variation (ITV) can also be an important mechanism mediating environmental effects on ecosystem functioning. This is surprising, given that global change processes such as habitat fragmentation and the creation of forest edges drive strong trait shifts within species. On 20 islands in the Thousand Island Lake, China, we quantified intraspecific leaf trait shifts of a widely distributed shrub species, Vaccinium carlesii, in response to habitat fragmentation...

Alders are nitrogen (N)-fixing riparian trees that promote leaf litter decomposition in streams through their high-nutrient leaf litter inputs. While alders are widespread across Europe, their populations are at risk due to infection by the oomycete Phytophthora ×alni, which causes alder dieback. Moreover, alder death opens a space for the establishment of an aggressive N-fixing invasive species, the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). Shifts from riparian vegetation containing healthy to infected alder and, eventually, alder loss and replacement with black locust may alter the key process of leaf litter decomposition and associated microbial decomposer assemblages...

Crabs in mangroves could enhance the transfer of organic carbon (OC) from leaf litter to soils, whose variation with the difference in crab size is, however, not well known. A 32-day laboratory feeding experiment was conducted to explore the effects of different sizes of the crabs Parasesarma plicatum foraging on leaf litter of Kandelia obovata on OC accumulation in mangrove soils. Mean rates of soil OC accumulation due to leaf foraging by large, medium, and small crabs were 21.11, 16.11, and 0.77 mg C ind-1 d-1 , corresponding to the rates of OC removal from leaf litter of 62...

Fungi play a crucial role in decomposing litter and facilitating the energy flow between aboveground plants and underground soil in forest ecosystems. However, our understanding how the fungal community involved in litter decomposition responds during forest succession, particularly in disease-driven succession, is still limited. This study investigated the activity of degrading enzyme, fungal community, and predicted function in litter after one year of decomposition in different types of forests during a forest succession gradient from coniferous to deciduous forest, induced by pine wilt disease...

BACKGROUND: Tree mycorrhizal types (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and ectomycorrhizal fungi) alter nutrient use traits and leaf physicochemical properties and, thus, affect leaf litter decomposition. However, little is known about how different tree mycorrhizal species affect the microbial diversity, community composition, function, and community assembly processes that govern leaf litter-dwelling microbes during leaf litter decomposition. METHODS: In this study, we investigated the microbial diversity, community dynamics, and community assembly processes of nine temperate tree species using high-resolution molecular technique (Illumina sequencing), including broadleaved arbuscular mycorrhizal, broadleaved ectomycorrhizal, and coniferous ectomycorrhizal tree types, during leaf litter decomposition...

Grassy ecosystems cover ~40% of the global land surface and are an integral component of the global carbon (C) cycle. Grass litter decomposes via a combination of photodegradation (which returns C to the atmosphere rapidly) and biological decomposition (a slower C pathway). As such, decomposition and C storage in grasslands may vary with climate and exposure to solar radiation. We investigated rates of grass litter decomposition in Australian temperate grasslands along a climate gradient to uncouple the relative importance of photodegradation and climate on decomposition...