Litter decomposition in Afrotropical streams: Effects of land use, home-field advantage, and terrestrial herbivory

Fugère, Vincent; Lostchuck, Emily; Chapman, Lauren J.

doi:10.1086/709807

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Furthermore, for studies conducted at large spatial scales, some sites may exist outside the range of the chosen plant species, with potential consequences for decomposition. However, the home-field advantage hypothesis, which posits that litter decomposition will be most rapid near its source because organisms there are better adapted to use this litter as a substrate and food source than organisms away from the litter source, does not seem to be of concern in streams if high-quality leaves are used [118,119]. Lastly, the thermal conditions under which plants grow can influence the litter quality and decomposition rates.…”

Section: Practicability Of Organic Matter Decomposition As a Bioassessment Tool: Methods Strengths And Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Matter Decomposition and Ecosystem Metabolism as Tools to Assess the Functional Integrity of Streams and Rivers–A Systematic Review

Ferreira

Elosegi

Tiegs

et al. 2020

Water

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Streams and rivers provide important services to humans, and therefore, their ecological integrity should be a societal goal. Although ecological integrity encompasses structural and functional integrity, stream bioassessment rarely considers ecosystem functioning. Organic matter decomposition and ecosystem metabolism are prime candidate indicators of stream functional integrity, and here we review each of these functions, the methods used for their determination, and their strengths and limitations for bioassessment. We also provide a systematic review of studies that have addressed organic matter decomposition (88 studies) and ecosystem metabolism (50 studies) for stream bioassessment since the year 2000. Most studies were conducted in temperate regions. Bioassessment based on organic matter decomposition mostly used leaf litter in coarse-mesh bags, but fine-mesh bags were also common, and cotton strips and wood were frequent in New Zealand. Ecosystem metabolism was most often based on the open-channel method and used a single-station approach. Organic matter decomposition and ecosystem metabolism performed well at detecting environmental change (≈75% studies), with performances varying between 50 and 100% depending on the type of environmental change; both functions were sensitive to restoration practices in 100% of the studies examined. Finally, we provide examples where functional tools are used to complement the assessments of stream ecological integrity. With this review, we hope to facilitate the widespread incorporation of ecosystem processes into bioassessment programs with the broader aim of more effectively managing stream and river ecosystems.

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Section: Practicability Of Organic Matter Decomposition As a Bioassessment Tool: Methods Strengths And Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Matter Decomposition and Ecosystem Metabolism as Tools to Assess the Functional Integrity of Streams and Rivers–A Systematic Review

Ferreira

Elosegi

Tiegs

et al. 2020

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…S3), as there was a trade-off between origin and the comprehensiveness of the pool of species and traits. We sacrificed the former despite a possible homefield advantage (HFA) effect (42), because there is little evidence that HFA occurs for instream decomposition (43,44), and HFA generally explains much lower variability in decomposition than litter traits and climate (42). In addition, we discarded the use of artificial substrates that would have removed any HFA effect (e.g., cotton strips) because they would not allow the different diversity treatments required to test our hypotheses and because they do not account for detritivore feeding activity (33).…”

Section: Litter Mixturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Latitude dictates plant diversity effects on instream decomposition

et al. 2021

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Running waters contribute substantially to global carbon fluxes through decomposition of terrestrial plant litter by aquatic microorganisms and detritivores. Diversity of this litter may influence instream decomposition globally in ways that are not yet understood. We investigated latitudinal differences in decomposition of litter mixtures of low and high functional diversity in 40 streams on 6 continents and spanning 113° of latitude. Despite important variability in our dataset, we found latitudinal differences in the effect of litter functional diversity on decomposition, which we explained as evolutionary adaptations of litter-consuming detritivores to resource availability. Specifically, a balanced diet effect appears to operate at lower latitudes versus a resource concentration effect at higher latitudes. The latitudinal pattern indicates that loss of plant functional diversity will have different consequences on carbon fluxes across the globe, with greater repercussions likely at low latitudes.

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“…The copyright holder for this preprint (which this version posted April 17, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.11.439357 doi: bioRxiv preprint Gomes & Goerlitz, 2020;Zhao, Johnson-Bice & Roth, 2021). Although there is confusion over this recommendation, as some opt to use mixed-effects models despite this suggestion (Latta et al, 2018;Fugère, Lostchuck & Chapman, 2020;Gomes, Appel & Barber, 2020;Allen et al, 2021), likely because of the numerous advantages that mixed-effects models offer (Bolker, 2008;Kéry & Royle, 2015;Harrison et al, 2018), or fear of the consequences of pseudoreplication (although this can easily occur in mixed-effects models as well: Schielzeth & Forstmeier, 2009;Arnqvist, 2020). The trend to automatically follow this rule is likely exacerbated by the fact that authors or peer-reviewers can easily point out that this rule exists (Gelman & Hill, 2006;Harrison, 2015;Kéry & Royle, 2015;Harrison et al, 2018;Arnqvist, 2020), but may find it more difficult or time-consuming to make a nuanced argument against following such a rapidly growing rule.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Including random effects in statistical models in ecology: fewer than five levels?

Gomes

2021

Preprint

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As (generalized) linear mixed-effects models (GLMMs) have become a widespread tool in ecology, the need to guide the use of such tools is increasingly important. One common 'rule of thumb' is that one needs at least five levels of a random effect. Having such few levels makes the estimation of the variance of random effects terms difficult, but it need not muddy one's ability to estimate fixed effects terms. Here, I use simulated datasets and model fitting to show that having too few random effects terms does not influence the parameter estimates or uncertainty around those estimates for fixed effects terms. Thus, it should be acceptable to use fewer levels of random effects if one is not interested in making inference about variance estimates of the random effects terms (i.e. they are 'nuisance' parameters). I also assess the potential for pseudo-replication in (generalized) linear models (LMs), when random effects are explicitly ignored and find that LMs do not show increased type-I errors compared to their mixed-effects model counterparts. These results challenge the view that it is never appropriate to model random effects terms with fewer than five levels - when inference is not being made for the random effects, it may not pose problems. Given the widespread accessibility of GLMMs, future simulation studies and further assessments of these statistical methods are necessary to understand the consequences of both violating and blindly following 'rules of thumb.'

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Litter decomposition in Afrotropical streams: Effects of land use, home-field advantage, and terrestrial herbivory

Cited by 14 publications

References 60 publications

Organic Matter Decomposition and Ecosystem Metabolism as Tools to Assess the Functional Integrity of Streams and Rivers–A Systematic Review

Organic Matter Decomposition and Ecosystem Metabolism as Tools to Assess the Functional Integrity of Streams and Rivers–A Systematic Review

Latitude dictates plant diversity effects on instream decomposition

Including random effects in statistical models in ecology: fewer than five levels?

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