Litter decomposition is a key process that controls carbon (C) and nutrient cycles in forest ecosystems. In litter decomposition at local or broad special scales, the three factors including litter quality, fauna, and environments (decomposition site) that influence litter decomposition. However, most existing studies have focused on the independent effects of litter quality, fauna, and decomposition site on litter decomposition. However, how these multiple factors interactions to influence litter decomposition is limited in forest ecosystems.

Dr. Yang Kai from the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the guidance of Prof. Zhu Jiaojun, together with Yang’s colleagues Dr. Lu Deliang, Dr. Zheng Xiao, and Prof. Wang Geoff at Clemson University, have revealed that the relative contribution of each controlling factor to the litter decomposition based on 5040 litterbags.

Notably, Litter decomposition rates were predominantly controlled by litter quality, then by soil fauna and litter decomposition site in both monospecific and mixed litters. To further understand which parameter of litter quality that influence decomposition rate, the authors analyzed fourteen parameters of litter quality to indicate that the Mg concentration and lignin/P ratio influence the litter decomposition rate independent of the soil fauna size.

The authors also showed that soil fauna especially macrofauna significantly increased monospecific but not mixed litter decomposition. Moreover, litter decomposition enhanced in plantation sites with poor soil nutrient status, which implicate the importance of improving nutrient cycling for restoring temperate forest ecosystems in soils with poor fertility.

Collectively, this study demonstrated the litter decomposition mechanism in temperate forest ecosystem. In restoration of soil fertility in plantation site, the plant-soil feedback should be considered in the further study.

This work has been published in Journal of Ecology entitled " Litter decomposition and nutrient release from monospecific and mixed litters: comparisons of litter quality, fauna and decomposition site effects" and it was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China.

Contact 

YUE Qian

Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences 

Tel: 86-24-83970324 

E-mail: yueqian@iae.ac.cn  

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