Abstract
Wood decomposition is regulated by multiple controls, including climate and wood traits, that vary at local to regional scales. Yet decomposition rates differ dramatically when these controls do not. Fungal community dynamics are often invoked to explain these differences, suggesting that knowledge of ecosystem properties that influence fungal communities will improve understanding and projection of wood decomposition. We hypothesize that deadwood inputs decompose faster in forests with higher stocks of downed coarse woody material (CWM) because CWM is a resource from which lignocellulolytic fungi rapidly colonize new inputs. To test this hypothesis, we measure decomposition of 1,116 pieces of fine woody material (FWM) of five species, incubated for 13 to 49 months at five locations spanning 10°-latitude in eastern U.S. forest. We place FWM pieces near and far from CWM across observational transects and experimental common gardens. Soil temperature positively affects location-level mean decomposition rates, but these among-location differences are smaller than within-location variation in decomposition. Some of this variability is caused by CWM, where FWM pieces next to CWM decompose more rapidly. These effects are greater with time of incubation and lower initial wood density of FWM. The effect size of CWM is of the same relative magnitude as for the known controls of temperature, deadwood density and diameter. Abundance data for CWM is available for many forests and hence may be an ecosystem variable amenable for inclusion in decomposition models. Our findings suggest that conservation efforts to rebuild depleted CWM stocks in temperate forests may accelerate decomposition of fresh deadwood inputs.
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Data availability
Data, metadata and code are permanently archived and openly available in the Dryad data repository. They are available as Bradford et al. (2023) with the unique DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0rxwdbs39.
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Acknowledgements
We thank staff at Coweeta Hydrological Lab, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Mountain Lake Biological Station, Yale-Myers Forest and Whitehall Forest, for facilitating the fieldwork at their research locations; the Yale Analytical and Stable Isotope Center for total C and N analyses; and the soil ecology lab at Morton Arboretum for inorganic N analyses. Thanks to the research assistants who helped with the wood and soil lab analyses: Lysa Uwizeyimana, Amma Asantewaa Agyei Boakye, Elena Karlsen-Ayala, Ben Rifkin, Adam Houston, Dana Lee, Ravikant Sharma and Annie Stoeth. Thanks also to Jonathan Schilling for guidance on designing deadwood decomposition studies.
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This work was supported by U.S. National Science Foundation program grants DEB-1457614 and DEB-1926482 to MAB.
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MAB, DSM, GFV and TWC: designed the study, which was set-up by the first three of the authors and with help from MSS, JTM and PTF at the southern sites. MAB: maintained the two northern locations and MSW, JTM, PTF, SM and CW: helped maintain the three southern locations. The experiment was harvested by MAB, DSM, GFV and CS, with assistance at various sites by PTF, JGR, NF, TWC and SK. MAB and EMB cut and prepared all the FWM pieces, and MAB worked with KRC to locate and fell saplings at YMF. EEO, AP, NF, CS and JGR: led various aspects of the lab analyses. MAB, EBW, AP, AMO, FVJ and EEO: developed the inferential analysis. MAB: collated all data, carried out the statistical analyses and wrote the original version of the paper; all authors contributed to the final version.
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Bradford, M.A., Veen, G.F.C., Bradford, E.M. et al. Coarse woody debris accelerates the decomposition of deadwood inputs across temperate forest. Biogeochemistry 164, 489–507 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01045-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01045-8