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Temporal Shifts in Plant Diversity Effects on Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics During Litter Decomposition in a Mediterranean Shrubland Exposed to Reduced Precipitation

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Abstract

Climate and plant diversity are major determinants of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics in decomposing plant litter. However, the direction and extent to which these dynamics are affected by combined changes in climate and biodiversity are not well understood. We used a field experiment in a Mediterranean shrubland ranging from one to four shrub species with partial rain exclusion (− 12%) to test how lower precipitation interacts with shrub species diversity to influence C and N release during decomposition. We also distinguished between first-year (0–12 months) and second-year decomposition (12–24 months) to test the hypothesis of stronger diversity effects at the beginning of the decomposition process. Litter C and N release increased with litter species richness during the first year, but not during the second year of decomposition. However, these richness effects were weak and less consistent than litter composition effects, which persisted over time and became even stronger for C release after 2 years of decomposition. Partial rain exclusion reduced N release by 17% only during the first year and had no effect on C release in either year. Community-weighted mean (CWM) traits and functional dissimilarity (FD) of litter traits contributed both to explain litter species composition effects. These litter trait effects were not altered by partial rain exclusion, but were more important after 2 years than after 1 year of decomposition. Our findings suggest increasing trait legacy effects with ongoing decomposition. More generally, our data showed that changes in the diversity of dominant shrub species had stronger effects on C and N release during litter decomposition than a moderate reduction in precipitation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our colleagues from CEFE UMR 5175 (Montpellier) and from IMBE UMR 7263 (Marseille) for their contribution to the setup of the experiment and the field work. We specially thank Sylvie Dupouyet for her tireless assistance during the field work, Caroline Lecareux and Germain Boungou for their assistance to the chemical analyses, and Jean-Philippe Mévy for the acquisition of meteorological and soil humidity data. Funding was provided by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) through the project CLIMED (ANR-09-CEP-007). We also thank the French Region PACA and Europe for the PhD grant attributed to Mathieu Santonja.

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  1. Nathalie Fromin

    Present address: PROMES/CNRS, 7 rue du Four Solaire, 66120, Odeillo, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aix Marseille Univ, Univ Avignon, CNRS, IRD, IMBE, Marseille, France

    Mathieu Santonja, Anaïs Rancon, Catherine Fernandez & Virginie Baldy

  2. Univ Rennes, CNRS, ECOBIO, UMR 6553, 35000, Rennes, France

    Mathieu Santonja

  3. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), CNRS, Univ Montpellier, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Alexandru Milcu, Nathalie Fromin, Ammar Shihan & Stephan Hättenschwiler

  4. Ecotron Européen de Montpellier, Unité Propre de Service 3248, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Campus Baillarguet, 34980, Montferrier-Sur-Lez, France

    Alexandru Milcu

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M.S., V.B., A.R., and S.H. designed the study; M.S. and A.R. conducted the experiment and collected the data; M.S., A.M. and S.H. analyzed the data and led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Santonja, M., Milcu, A., Fromin, N. et al. Temporal Shifts in Plant Diversity Effects on Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics During Litter Decomposition in a Mediterranean Shrubland Exposed to Reduced Precipitation. Ecosystems 22, 939–954 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0315-4

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