Plant species control and soil faunal involvement in the processes of above‐ and below‐ground litter decomposition
Plant species control and soil faunal involvement in the processes of above‐ and below‐ground litter decomposition
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DOI：
10.1111/oik.02457
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发表时间：
2016-06
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Saori Fujii;N. Makita;A. Mori;H. Takeda
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Saori Fujii;N. Makita;A. Mori;H. Takeda
在决定凋落物分解率的因素中，土壤动物作为分解者的作用仍不清楚，特别是与相对已知的分解地上叶凋落物的贡献相比，它们如何参与分解地下根凋落物。我们使用两种尺寸的网格进行了垃圾袋实验，并在 411 天的时间里对日本温带森林中的六种主要树种的叶和根进行了分解，以测试基于两个特征（凋落物类型和物种）的土壤中型动物和凋落物质量的交互影响。此外，考虑到叶子和根的凋落物特征之间可能存在相关性，我们研究了土壤中型动物是否改变了物种间叶子和根分解之间的关系。我们发现，在确定地上和地下分解中的凋落物质量损失率和微生物呼吸率时，植物物种特性的影响强于土壤中底动物的影响。此外，我们发现，无论是否涉及土壤中型动物，叶和根凋落物分解过程之间都存在显着的正相关性。另一方面，土壤中型动物的存在增加了叶子分解早期的微生物呼吸速率；然而，在实验过程中，土壤中型动物并没有影响根系微生物的呼吸速率。中型动物在叶和根凋落物分解中的这种差异参与可能分别驱动土壤中植物叶和根分解更快和更慢的一般模式。
Among the factors determining litter decomposition rates, the role of soil fauna as decomposers still remains unclear, especially for how they are involved in decomposing below-ground root litter compared to their relatively-known contributions to decomposing above-ground leaf litter. We conducted a litterbag experiment using two sizes of meshes and pursued the leaf and root decomposition of six major tree species in a Japanese temperate forest over 411-days to test the interactive effects of soil mesofauna and litter quality addressed based on two features (litter types and species) on the process. Moreover, given a possible correlation between litter traits of the leaves and roots, we examined whether soil mesofauna alters the relationship between leaf and root decomposition across species. We found that the effects of plant species identity was stronger than that of soil mesofauna for determining the litter mass loss rate and the microbial respiration rate in both above-ground and below-ground decomposition. In addition, we found a significant positive correlation between leaf and root litter decomposition processes, regardless of the involvement soil mesofauna. On the other hand, the presence of soil mesofauna increased microbial respiration rates in the early stage of leaf decomposition; however, soil mesofauna did not affect root microbial respiration rates during the experiment. Such differential involvement of mesofauna in the leaf and root litter decomposition may drive the general patterns of faster and slower decomposition of plant leaves and roots in the soil, respectively.