Simple three‐pool model accurately describes patterns of long‐term litter decomposition in diverse climates

Adair, E. Carol; Parton, William J.; Grosso, Steven J. Del; Silver, Whendee L.; Harmon, Mark E.; Hall, Sonia A.; Burke, Ingrid C.; Hart, Stephen C.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01674.x

Cited by 422 publications

(366 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(123 reference statements)

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“…Dispersal and stochastic microbial assembly S Evans et al complete chemical composition), representing the breadth of litter chemistries across diverse environments (Adair et al, 2008). We used this environmental gradient in two ways in our study.…”

Section: Selection By Leaf Chemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of dispersal and selection on stochastic assembly in microbial communities

2016

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Stochastic processes can play an important role in microbial community assembly. Dispersal limitation is one process that can increase stochasticity and obscure relationships between environmental variables and microbial community composition, but the relationship between dispersal, selection and stochasticity has not been described in a comprehensive way. We examine how dispersal and its interactions with drift and selection alter the consistency with which microbial communities assemble using a realistic, individual-based model of microbial decomposers. Communities were assembled under different environmental conditions and dispersal rates in repeated simulations, and we examined the compositional difference among replicate communities colonizing the same type of leaf litter ('within-group distance'), as well as between-group deterministic selection. Dispersal rates below 25% turnover per year resulted in high within-group distance among communities and no significant environmental effects. As dispersal limitation was alleviated, both within-and between-group distance decreased, but despite this homogenization, deterministic environmental effects remained significant. In addition to direct effects of dispersal rate, stochasticity of community composition was influenced by an interaction between dispersal and selection strength. Specifically, communities experiencing stronger selection (less favorable litter chemistries) were more stochastic, possibly because lower biomass and richness intensified drift or priority effects. Overall, we show that dispersal rate can significantly alter patterns of community composition. Partitioning the effects of dispersal, selection and drift based on static patterns of microbial composition will be difficult, if not impossible. Experiments will be required to tease apart these complex interactions between assembly processes shaping microbial communities.

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Section: Selection By Leaf Chemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of dispersal and selection on stochastic assembly in microbial communities

2016

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“…Due to the necessity to mitigate the increased atmospheric CO 2 concentrations resulting from human activity, there has been an intense focus of interest on the controls of CO 2 uptake by vegetation and their effects on carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems (2). In contrast, there has been much less attention given to the factors and processes that control the dynamics of carbon losses, which can be equally important in determining the carbon balance at the ecosystem scale (3,4).…”

Section: Uv Radiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photodegradation alleviates the lignin bottleneck for carbon turnover in terrestrial ecosystems

Austin

Méndez

Ballaré

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

155

195

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A mechanistic understanding of the controls on carbon storage and losses is essential for our capacity to predict and mitigate human impacts on the global carbon cycle. Plant litter decomposition is an important first step for carbon and nutrient turnover, and litter inputs and losses are essential in determining soil organic matter pools and the carbon balance in terrestrial ecosystems. Photodegradation, the photochemical mineralization of organic matter, has been recently identified as a mechanism for previously unexplained high rates of litter mass loss in arid lands; however, the global significance of this process as a control on carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems is not known. Here we show that, across a wide range of plant species, photodegradation enhanced subsequent biotic degradation of leaf litter. Moreover, we demonstrate that the mechanism for this enhancement involves increased accessibility to plant litter carbohydrates for microbial enzymes. Photodegradation of plant litter, driven by UV radiation, and especially visible (blue-green) light, reduced the structural and chemical bottleneck imposed by lignin in secondary cell walls. In leaf litter from woody species, specific interactions with UV radiation obscured facilitative effects of solar radiation on biotic decomposition. The generalized effect of sunlight exposure on subsequent microbial activity, mediated by increased accessibility to cell wall polysaccharides, suggests that photodegradation is quantitatively important in determining rates of mass loss, nutrient release, and the carbon balance in a broad range of terrestrial ecosystems.carbon cycle | plant litter decomposition | photodegradation | lignin |

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“…A new method is available to include coarse woody debris together with fine litter in such comparative common-garden studies, taking into account differences in size and time scale of decomposition. Cornelissen (1996); Cadisch and Giller (1997); Cornelissen et al ( , 2007; Garnier et al (2004); Austin and Vivanco (2006); Parton et al (2007); Adair et al (2008);Cornwell et al (2008);Fortunel et al (2009);Freschet et al (2012).…”

Section: Special Cases or Extrasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corrigendum to: New handbook for standardised measurement of plant functional traits worldwide

Pérez‐Harguindeguy¹,

Díaz²,

Garnier³

et al. 2016

Aust. J. Bot.

400

232

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The authors regret that elements of Appendix 1 were incorrect in the original publication. The correct version of Appendix 1 is given below. Appendix 1. Summary of plant traits Summary of plant traits included in the handbookThe range of values corresponds to those generally reported for field-grown plants. Ranges of values are based on the literature and the authors' datasets and do not always necessarily correspond to the widest ranges that exist in nature or are theoretically possible. Recommended sample size indicates the minimum and preferred number of individuals to be sampled, so as to obtain an appropriate indication of the values for the trait of interest; when only one value is given, it corresponds to the number of individuals ( = replicates); when two values are given, the first one corresponds to the number of individuals and the second one to the number of organs to be measured per individual. Note that one replicate can be compounded from several individuals (for smaller species), whereas one individual cannot be used for different replicates. The expected coefficient of variation (CV) range gives the 20th and the 80th percentile of the CV ( = s.d. scaled to the mean) as observed in several datasets obtained for a range of field plants for different biomes. Numbering of plant traits corresponds with the numbering of the chapters in the handbook Abstract. Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that represent ecological strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels and influence ecosystem properties. Variation in plant functional traits, and trait syndromes, has proven useful for tackling many important ecological questions at a range of scales, giving rise to a demand for standardised ways to measure ecologically meaningful plant traits. This line of research has been among the most fruitful avenues for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes. It also has the potential both to build a predictive set of local, regional and global relationships between plants and environment and to quantify a wide range of natural and human-driven processes, including changes in biodiversity, the impacts of species invasions, alterations in biogeochemical processes and vegetation-atmosphere interactions. The importance of these topics dictates the urgent need for more and better data, and increases the value of standardised protocols for quantifying trait variation of different species, in particular for traits with power to predict plant-and ecosystemlevel processes, and for traits that can be measured relatively easily. Updated and expanded from the widely used previous version, this handbook retains the focus on clearly presented, widely applicable, step-by-step recipes, with a minimum of text on theory, and not only includes updated methods for the traits previously covered, but also introduces many new protocols for further traits. This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant ...

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Simple three‐pool model accurately describes patterns of long‐term litter decomposition in diverse climates

Cited by 422 publications

References 65 publications

Effects of dispersal and selection on stochastic assembly in microbial communities

Effects of dispersal and selection on stochastic assembly in microbial communities

Photodegradation alleviates the lignin bottleneck for carbon turnover in terrestrial ecosystems

Corrigendum to: New handbook for standardised measurement of plant functional traits worldwide

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