Abstract
Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata (Bieb.) Cav. et Grande) is a widespread forest edge plant species in the European temperate zone and also one of the most invasive herbaceous species in North America. Studies of A. petiolata decomposition and nutrient release are relatively scarce. We know even less about the differences in decomposition of particular organs. Invasive species, by their impacts on litter quality, may have a large effect on ecosystem functioning. Therefore, we studied the decomposition process and N and C release patterns using the litterbag method. We determined decay constants (k), half decay rates and total decay rates of A. petiolata leaves and stems separately. We found statistically significant differences in the rate of litter decomposition both between organ types and collection times. During 126 days of the experiment, 87.3% of the leaves biomass of A. petiolata decomposed. At the same time, only 24.5% of the stem biomass of A. petiolata decomposed. During 532 days of the experiment, 55.4% of studied plant stems decomposed. Litter decomposition of A. petiolata leaves is 3.5 times faster than decomposition of A. petiolata stems. The patterns of N and C release were different for leaves and stems of A. petiolata. In the case of A. petiolata stems, we found N and C immobilization during decomposition. Our results support assumption that neglecting decomposition rates of stems leads to almost a fivefold (4.8) overestimation of whole-plant decomposition rate after six months of decomposition.
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30 August 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01489-x
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Acknowledgements
We kindly thank Dr. Lee E. Frelich (The University of Minnesota Center for Forest Ecology, USA) for valuable comments on the early draft of the manuscript and linguistic support. We also thank Dr. Marcin K. Dyderski, Dr. Paweł Horodecki and Dr. Mateusz Rawlik (Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kórnik, Poland) for valuable comments on the early draft of the manuscript.
Funding
The study was supported by the General Directorate of State Forests, Warsaw, Poland (research project ‘Environmental and genetic factors affecting productivity of forest ecosystems on forest and post-industrial habitats’) and by the Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kórnik, Poland (research project for young scientists, 2017).
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KR and AMJ conceived the ideas and designed the methodology; KR collected the data; KR and AMJ analysed the data; KR wrote the first draft of the manuscript; AMJ supervised.
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Rawlik, K., Jagodziński, A.M. Differences in C and N release from Alliaria petiolata leaves and stems: consequences for nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. Eur J Forest Res 141, 769–778 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01469-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01469-1