Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Factors influencing leaf litter decomposition: an intersite decomposition experiment across China

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
Plant and Soil Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Long-Term Intersite Decomposition Experiment in China (hereafter referred to as LTIDE-China) was established in 2002 to study how substrate quality and macroclimate factors affect leaf litter decomposition. The LTIDE-China includes a wide variety of natural and managed ecosystems, consisting of 12 forest types (eight regional broadleaf forests, three needle-leaf plantations and one broadleaf plantation) at eight locations across China. Samples of mixed leaf litter from the south subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest in Dinghushan (referred to as the DHS sample) were translocated to all 12 forest types. The leaf litter from each of other 11 forest types was placed in its original forest to enable comparison of decomposition rates of DHS and local litters. The experiment lasted for 30 months, involving collection of litterbags from each site every 3 months. Our results show that annual decomposition rate-constants, as represented by regression fitted k-values, ranged from 0.169 to 1.454/year. Climatic factors control the decomposition rate, in which mean annual temperature and annual actual evapotranspiration are dominant and mean annual precipitation is subordinate. Initial C/N and N/P ratios were demonstrated to be important factors of regulating litter decomposition rate. Decomposition process may apparently be divided into two phases controlled by different factors. In our study, 0.75 years is believed to be the dividing line of the two phases. The fact that decomposition rates of DHS litters were slower than those of local litters may have been resulted from the acclimation of local decomposer communities to extraneous substrate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aber JD, Melillo JM, McClaugherty CA (1990) Predicting long-term patterns of mass loss, nitrogen dynamics, and soil organic matter formation from initial fine litter chemistry in temperate forest ecosystems. Can J Bot 68:2201–2208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aerts R (1997) Climate, leaf litter chemistry and leaf litter decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems: a triangular relationship. Oikos 79:439–449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapin FS III, Shaver GR (1996) Physiological and growth responses of arctic plants to a field experimental simulating climatic change. Ecology 77:822–840

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coûteaux MM, Bottner P, Berg B (1995) Litter decomposition, climate and litter quality. Trends Ecol Evol 10:63–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gholz HL, Wedin DA, Smitherman SM, Harmon ME, Parton WJ (2000) Long-term dynamics of pine and hardwood litter in contrasting environments: toward a global model of decomposition. Glob Chang Biol 6:751–765

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helland IS (1987) On the interpretation and use of R2 in regression analysis. Biometrics 43:61–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heneghan L, Coleman DC, Zou X, Crossley DA Jr, Haines BL (1998) Soil microarthropod community structure and litter decomposition dynamics: a study of tropical and temperate sites. Appl Soil Ecol 9:33–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li KX (2007) Effects of nitrogen deposition on litter decomposition of two main coniferous tree species in Changbai mountain. J Northeast For Univ 35(2):17–19

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li XF, Han SJ, Zhang Y (2007) Foliar decomposition in a broadleaf-mixed Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis Sieb. Et Zucc) plantation forest: the impact of initial litter quality and the decomposition of three kinds of organic matter fraction on mass loss and nutrient release rates. Plant Soil 295:151–167

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McHale PJ, Mitchell MJ, Bowles FP (1998) Soil warming in northern hardwood forest: trace gas fluxes and leaf litter decomposition. Can J For Res 28:1365–1372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melillo JM, Aber JD, Muratore JF (1982) Nitrogen and lignin control of hardwood leaf litter decomposition dynamics. Ecology 63:621–626

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meentemeyer V (1984) The geography of organic decomposition rates. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 74:551–560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore B, Braswell III (1994) Planetary metabolism: understanding the carbon cycle. Ambio 23:4–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Moorhead DL, Currie WS, Rasttetter EB, Parton WJ, Harmon ME (1999) Climate and litter quality controls on decomposition: an analysis of modeling approaches. Glob Biogeochem Cycles 13:575–589

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Motulsky HJ, Christopoulos A (2003) Fitting models to biological data using linear and nonlinear regression: a practical guide to curve fitting. GraphPad Software Inc., San Diego, pp 34–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson JS (1963) Energy stores and the balance of producers and decomposers in ecological systems. Ecology 44:322–331

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parton W, Silver WL, Burke IC, Grassens L, Harmon ME, Currie WS et al (2007) Global-scale similarities in nitrogen release patterns during long-term decomposition. Science 315:361–364

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Prescott CE (2005) Do rates of litter decomposition tell us anything we really need to know? For Ecol Manag 220:66–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger WH (1991) Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Seastedt TR, Crossley DA, Meentemeyer V Jr, Waide JB (1983) A two-year study of leaf litter decomposition as related to macroclimatic factors and microarthropod abundance in the southern Appalachians. Holarct Ecol 6:11–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw MR, Harte J (2001) Control of litter decomposition in a subalpine meadow-sagebrush steppe ecotone under climate change. Ecol Appl 11(4):1206–1223

    Google Scholar 

  • Silver WL, Miya RK (2001) Global patterns in root decomposition: comparisons of climate and litter quality. Oecologia 129:407–419

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor BR, Parkinson D (1988a) A new microcosm approach to litter decomposition studies. Can J Bot 66:1933–1939

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor BR, Parkinson D (1988b) Respiration and mass loss rates of aspen and pine leaf litter decomposing in laboratory microcosms. Can J Bot 66:1948–1959

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor BR, Parkinson D, Parsons WFJ (1989) Nitrogen and lignin content as predictors of litter decomposition rates: a microcosm test. Ecology 70(1):97–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM, Turner DR, Parton WJ, Sanford RL (1994) Litter decomposition on the Mauna Loa environmental matrix, Hawaii: patterns, mechanisms, and models. Ecology 75(2):418–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang J, Huang JH (2001) Comparison of major nutrient release patterns in leaf litter decomposition in warm temperate zone of China. Acta Phytoecologica Sinica 25(3):375–380

    Google Scholar 

  • Wardle DA, Walker LR, Bardgett RD (2004) Ecosystem properties and forest decline in contrasting long-term chronosequences. Science 305:509–513

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xu XJ, Zhang K, Liu B, Lan CC, Xu XN (2007) Review on litter decomposition in forest ecosystems. Sci Soil Water Conserv 5(4):108–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang DQ, Yu QF, Kong GH, Zhang YC (1998) Chemical properties of forest floor litter in Dinghushan monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest. Acta Ecol Sin 18(1):96–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou GY, Sun G, Wang X, Zhou CY, McNulty SG, Vose JM et al (2008) Estimating forest ecosystem evapotranspiration at multiple temporal scales with a dimension analysis approach. J Am Water Resour Assoc 44(1):208–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The LTIDE study was funded by NSFC projects 30725006 and 40730102 and CERN. We thank Drs. Li Yide, Wang Silong, Tang Jianwei, Sang Weiguo, Guo Qingxi, Liu Yuhong, and Cheng Genwei for their assistance in field data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Guoyi Zhou, Lili Guan, Xuli Tang, Juxiu Liu, Deqiang Zhang & Junhua Yan

  2. Earth and Environmental Science, University of British Columbia, 3333 University way, Kelowna, BC, Canada, V1V 1V7

    Xiaohua Wei

  3. SAIC, USGS National Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science, Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Shuguang Liu

Authors
  1. Guoyi Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lili Guan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xiaohua Wei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xuli Tang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Shuguang Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Juxiu Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Deqiang Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Junhua Yan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guoyi Zhou.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Alfonso Escudero.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zhou, G., Guan, L., Wei, X. et al. Factors influencing leaf litter decomposition: an intersite decomposition experiment across China. Plant Soil 311, 61–72 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9658-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9658-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation