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Short-term effects of litter from 21 woody species on plant growth and root development

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Abstract

Background and aims

Plant litter has an important role in terrestrial ecosystems (Lambers et al. 2008). Our aim was to assess the short-term effect of litter from 21 woody species (deciduous and evergreens) on plant growth and root development.

Methods

We conducted a short-term experiment (10 weeks) under controlled conditions adding litter from 21 woody species to pots with Dactylis glomerata (target species). We determined plant biomass and root development and related these variables to decomposition rate and litter quality.

Results

Litter from two species enhanced plant growth whereas litter of five species inhibited it. Considering all species in the data set, plant growth was associated to litter with high decomposition rate and high litter quality: high Ca and N concentration and low polyphenols concentration. However, excluding from the analyses the two species that increased growth, litter inhibition effect on plant growth was related to the litter-polyphenols concentration. Plants growing with nutrient-richer litter had a lower proportion of fine roots which could be related to a litter mediated increase in soil nutrient.

Conclusions

Enhanced plant growth or, on the contrary, plant growth inhibition could be the result of a positive or, in turn, negative balance between nutrient and polyphenols concentration in litter.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a predoctoral fellowship FPI-MEC to BLI (BES-2009-016985 and by the coordinated Spanish MEC project INTERBOS (CGL2008-04503-CO3-02), DIVERBOS (CGL2011-30285-C02-02), ANASINQUE project (PGC2010-RNM-5782) by Junta de Andalucía, the Life + Biodehesa Project (11/BIO/ES/000726) and FEDER funding. We would like to thank Jose Antonio Alburquerque, María Espejo, Alba Nieto, Juan López, Mª del Carmen Iglesias, Luisa Fernández, Mar Ávila, Daniel Sánchez, Felisa Covelo, Claudia, Olga and Aída López, Alex Del Rey, Enrique G. De la Riva and Ángeles Carmona for their indispensable help with experiment preparation, plants watering, data collection and chemical analyses. We want also to thank two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions on a previous version of the manuscript. Our research group is a member of the GLOBIMED network (http://www.globimed.net/).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área de Ecología, Edificio Celestino Mutis, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071, Córdoba, Spain

    Bárbara Lopez-Iglesias, Manuel Olmo & Rafael Villar

  2. Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Pablo de Olavide, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Antonio Gallardo

Authors
  1. Bárbara Lopez-Iglesias
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  2. Manuel Olmo
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  3. Antonio Gallardo
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  4. Rafael Villar
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Correspondence to Bárbara Lopez-Iglesias.

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Responsible Editor: Harry Olde Venterink.

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Lopez-Iglesias, B., Olmo, M., Gallardo, A. et al. Short-term effects of litter from 21 woody species on plant growth and root development. Plant Soil 381, 177–191 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2109-6

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