Stoichiometry of Plant Litter Decomposition in Stream Ecosystems

Dynamics of Plant Litter Potassium Storage in a Subtropical Forest Headwater Stream

“…Also, streams have relatively high depths and flow velocity during this period, and plant litter is carried by streams to be stored within reach, which can also lead to peaks in plant litter K storage in streams [33]. In August, at the end of the rainy season, plant litter in streams undergoes predecomposition and fragmentation as they migrate downstream with flowing water, increasing the contact area of decomposers with plant litter [5], and combined with the fast rate of decomposition of plant litter in the aqueous environment, leads to a significant reduction in K reserves [34]. During the monitoring period, K storage of the leaf litter was higher than that of other types of litter, which may be that forest litter is mainly composed of leaves, and leaves are the most active component of the material cycle in forest ecosystems, with a shorter lifespan and rapid renewal, resulting in significantly higher leaf K storage than other organs [35,36].…”

Leaves stimulate aquatic phosphorus uptake by dark‐grown but not by light‐grown microbial communities in sediments: A laboratory study

“…Leaves provide habitat for the aquatic microbiome (Marks, 2019; O'Brien et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2019) and can also act as adsorption sites for P (Mehring et al., 2015; Robbins et al., 2023). Numerous studies have shown a strong coupling between nutrient availability and leaf degradation (Bastias et al., 2018; Danger et al., 2021; Marks, 2019) but the reverse effects of POC availability on the microbial nutrient uptake have rarely been investigated so far (but see, e.g., O'Brien et al., 2017; Gibson & O'Reilly, 2012). Leaves do not only provide OC for nutrient uptake but they also deliver nutrients to the water column via leaching and mineralisation, thus potentially diminishing the positive effects of the OC supply on nutrient uptake.…”