1. Reading tea leaves worldwide: Decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass-loss rate and stabilization.
- Author
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Sarneel JM, Hefting MM, Sandén T, van den Hoogen J, Routh D, Adhikari BS, Alatalo JM, Aleksanyan A, Althuizen IHJ, Alsafran MHSA, Atkins JW, Augusto L, Aurela M, Azarov AV, Barrio IC, Beier C, Bejarano MD, Benham SE, Berg B, Bezler NV, Björnsdóttir K, Bolinder MA, Carbognani M, Cazzolla Gatti R, Chelli S, Chistotin MV, Christiansen CT, Courtois P, Crowther TW, Dechoum MS, Djukic I, Duddigan S, Egerton-Warburton LM, Fanin N, Fantappiè M, Fares S, Fernandes GW, Filippova NV, Fliessbach A, Fuentes D, Godoy R, Grünwald T, Guzmán G, Hawes JE, He Y, Hero JM, Hess LL, Hogendoorn K, Høye TT, Jans WWP, Jónsdóttir IS, Keller S, Kepfer-Rojas S, Kuz'menko NN, Larsen KS, Laudon H, Lembrechts JJ, Li J, Limousin JM, Lukin SM, Marques R, Marín C, McDaniel MD, Meek Q, Merzlaya GE, Michelsen A, Montagnani L, Mueller P, Murugan R, Myers-Smith IH, Nolte S, Ochoa-Hueso R, Okafor BN, Okorkov VV, Onipchenko VG, Orozco MC, Parkhurst T, Peres CA, Petit Bon M, Petraglia A, Pingel M, Rebmann C, Scheffers BR, Schmidt I, Scholes MC, Sheffer E, Shevtsova LK, Smith SW, Sofo A, Stevenson PR, Strouhalová B, Sundsdal A, Sühs RB, Tamene G, Thomas HJD, Tolunay D, Tomaselli M, Tresch S, Tucker DL, Ulyshen MD, Valdecantos A, Vandvik V, Vanguelova EI, Verheyen K, Wang X, Yahdjian L, Yumashev XS, and Keuskamp JA
- Subjects
- Carbon Cycle, Carbon metabolism, Plant Leaves
- Abstract
The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial mass-loss rates and stabilization factors of plant-derived carbon, using the Tea Bag Index (TBI). The stabilization factor quantifies the degree to which easy-to-degrade components accumulate during early-stage decomposition (e.g. by environmental limitations). However, agriculture and an interaction between moisture and temperature led to a decoupling between initial mass-loss rates and stabilization, notably in colder locations. Using TBI improved mass-loss estimates of natural litter compared to models that ignored stabilization. Ignoring the transformation of dead plant material to more recalcitrant substances during early-stage decomposition, and the environmental control of this transformation, could overestimate carbon losses during early decomposition in carbon cycle models., (© 2024 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
- Published
- 2024
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