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Interactive responses of grass litter decomposition to warming, nitrogen addition and detritivore access in a temperate old field

  • Global change ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Plant litter decomposition has been studied extensively in the context of both climate warming and increased atmospheric N deposition. However, much of this research is based on microbial responses, despite the potential for detritivores to contribute substantially to litter breakdown. We measured litter mass-loss responses to the combined effects of warming, N addition and detritivore access in a grass-dominated old field. We concurrently assessed the roles of litter treatment origin vs. microenvironment (direct warming and N-addition effects) to elucidate the mechanisms through which these factors affect decomposition. After 6 weeks, mass loss increased in N-addition plots, and it increased with detritivore access in the absence of warming. After 1 year, warming, N addition, and detritivore access all increased litter mass loss, although the effects of N addition and warming were non-additive in the detritivore-access plots. For the litter-origin experiment, mass loss after 6 weeks increased in litter from N-addition plots and warmed plots, but unlike the overall decomposition response, the N-addition effect was enhanced by detritivore access. Conversely, for the microenvironment experiment, detritivore access only increased mass loss in unfertilized plots. After 1 year, detritivore access increased mass loss in the litter-origin and microenvironment experiments, but there were no warming or N-addition effects. Overall, our results provide support for a substantial role of detritivores in promoting litter mass loss in our system. Moreover, they reveal important interactions between litter origin, microclimate and detritivores in determining decomposition responses to global change.

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Acknowledgments

The infrastructure for this experiment was funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Research Fund. This work was also supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to HALH and an NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship to ERDM.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Eric R. D. Moise & Hugh A. L. Henry

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  1. Eric R. D. Moise
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Correspondence to Hugh A. L. Henry.

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Communicated by Russell Monson.

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Moise, E.R.D., Henry, H.A.L. Interactive responses of grass litter decomposition to warming, nitrogen addition and detritivore access in a temperate old field. Oecologia 176, 1151–1160 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3068-6

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