Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Linking litter decomposition of above- and below-ground organs to plant–soil feedbacks worldwide
Show others and affiliations
Responsible organisation
2013 (English)In: Journal of Ecology, ISSN 0022-0477, E-ISSN 1365-2745, Vol. 101, no 4, p. 943-952Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

* Conceptual frameworks relating plant traits to ecosystem processes such as organic matter dynamics are progressively moving from a leaf-centred to a whole-plant perspective. Through the use of meta-analysis and global literature data, we quantified the relative roles of litters from above- and below-ground plant organs in ecosystem labile organic matter dynamics. * We found that decomposition rates of leaves, fine roots and fine stems were coordinated across species worldwide although less strongly within ecosystems. We also show that fine roots and stems had lower decomposition rates relative to leaves, with large differences between woody and herbaceous species. Further, we estimated that on average below-ground litter represents approximately 33 and 48% of annual litter inputs in grasslands and forests, respectively. * These results suggest a major role for below-ground litter as a driver of ecosystem organic matter dynamics. We also suggest that, given that fine stem and fine root litters decompose approximately 1.5 and 2.8 times slower, respectively, than leaf litter derived from the same species, cycling of labile organic matter is likely to be much slower than predicted by data from leaf litter decomposition only. * Synthesis. Our results provide evidence that within ecosystems, the relative inputs of above- versus below-ground litter strongly control the overall quality of the litter entering the decomposition system. This in turn determines soil labile organic matter dynamics and associated nutrient release in the ecosystem, which potentially feeds back to the mineral nutrition of plants and therefore plant trait values and plant community composition.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. Vol. 101, no 4, p. 943-952
Keywords [en]
decomposition rate (k), fine root, leaf, litter decomposability, litter input, plant economics spectrum, plant functional traits, plant–soil (below-ground) interactions, plant–soil feedback, response-effect framework
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-4213DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12092OAI: oai:DiVA.org:polar-4213DiVA, id: diva2:1177095
Available from: 2018-01-24 Created: 2018-01-24 Last updated: 2018-01-24

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full texthttp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12092
In the same journal
Journal of Ecology
Natural Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 134 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf