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Patterns and controls of aboveground litter inputs to temperate forests

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Abstract

Aboveground litter production is an important biogeochemical pathway in forests whereby carbon and nutrients enter soil detrital pools. However, patterns and controls of aboveground litter production are often based on an understanding of how autumnal, foliar inputs are related to aboveground tree production. Here we use three separate data sources of aboveground litter production in temperate forests to ask how aboveground woody productivity affects foliar litter production in light of other factors, such as the climate sensitivity of litter production and the seasonality of not only foliar but also fine woody debris and reproductive litter inputs. We find that foliar litter production increases with aboveground woody production, and this relationship is modified both by plant functional group and climate. Basal area also provides a crucial control on litter production. Conifer forests produce approximately half as much foliar litter as broadleaf deciduous forests. Litter production is sensitive to both among-site and among-year variation in climate, such that more litter is produced in warmer, wetter locations and years. On average 72% of aboveground litter is foliar material, with the remaining split about evenly between fine woody debris and reproductive material, and although about 88% of broadleaf litter falls during autumn, only about 61% of needles, 37% of fine woody debris and 43% of reproductive material falls during the same period. Together these results illustrate key differences in the controls of litter production in coniferous and deciduous forests, and highlight the importance of often overlooked litter fluxes, including non-autumn and non-foliar litterfall.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed in this study are available for download from the NEON website (https://www.neonscience.org/data), the Harvard Forest Data Archive (https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/harvard-forest-data-archive) and the Oak Ridge National Lab Distributed Active Archive Center website (https://daac.ornl.gov/VEGETATION/guides/Global_Litter_Carbon_Nutrients.html). Code for the analysis is available on Mendeley Data at  “Controls on litter production” DOI: https://doi.org/10.17632/ygvvrk8kzb.1.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Eli Ward and Meghan Midgely for constructive conversations about this work.

Funding

FVJ, AP, SAW, WRW, and MAB were supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Macrosystem Biology and NEON-Enabled Science program grants DEB-1926482 and DEB-1926413. Harvard Forest is an AmeriFlux core site supported by the AmeriFlux Management Project with funding by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, and a component of the Harvard Forest LTER site supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1832210). The National Ecological Observatory Network is a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and operated under cooperative agreement by Battelle. This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the NEON Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Fiona V. Jevon, Alexander Polussa, Stephen A. Wood & Mark. A. Bradford

  2. Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Ashley K. Lang

  3. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    J. William Munger

  4. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, USA

    Stephen A. Wood

  5. Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, 80307, USA

    William R. Wieder

  6. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    William R. Wieder

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  1. Fiona V. Jevon
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Contributions

FVJ and MAB developed and framed the research questions, with input from AKL, WRW, SAW and AP. FVJ led the data analysis with input from MAB, JWM, AP and AKL. JWM's lab generated the Harvard Forest litter dataset. FVJ wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the writing and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fiona V. Jevon.

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Jevon, F.V., Polussa, A., Lang, A.K. et al. Patterns and controls of aboveground litter inputs to temperate forests. Biogeochemistry 161, 335–352 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-022-00988-8

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