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Contribution of soil fauna to the degradation of recalcitrant components in Cinnamomum camphora foliar litter in different-sized gaps in Pinus massoniana plantations

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Abstract

Forest gaps are important in forest dynamics and management, but little is known about how soil fauna influence the degradation of recalcitrant litter components in different-sized forest gaps. This investigation uses litterbags with two different mesh sizes (0.04 and 3 mm) to control the meso- and microfauna entering the bags to quantify the contribution of soil fauna to the degradation of recalcitrant components (including condensed tannins, total phenol, lignin and cellulose) during litter decomposition. The experiment was conducted in seven different forest gap sizes in Pinus massoniana plantations over 1 year. One closed-canopy site (CC) and forest gap sizes of 100, 225, 400, 625, 900, 1225 and 1600 m2 were created in a P. massoniana plantation in the Sichuan basin of China; the CC was treated as the control. Cinnamomum camphora foliage from local native trees was used in all forest gap experiments. We found the following: (1) Gap size had significant effects on the degradation rates (E) of condensed tannins and lignin and on the contributions of soil fauna; medium-sized gaps also presented high degradation rates. Soil fauna obviously contributed to the degradation of recalcitrant foliar litter components in medium-sized gaps. (2) The highest contribution to degradation (40.98%) was recorded for lignin, and the lowest contribution (0.29%) was recorded for condensed tannins. The results indicate that medium-sized gaps (900 m2) were conducive to the degradation of recalcitrant litter components by soil fauna.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Forestry, College of Forestry, Chengdu, 611130, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Zhang, Xun Li & Jian Zhang

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Ecological Security in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River, Chengdu, 611130, People’s Republic of China

    Danju Zhang & Jian Zhang

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  1. Yan Zhang
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  2. Danju Zhang
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  3. Xun Li
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  4. Jian Zhang
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Correspondence to Jian Zhang.

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Project funding: The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 31370628), the National Science and Technology Support Project of China (Grant Number 2011BAC09B05), the Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Support Project (Grant Number 12ZC0017).

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Corresponding editor: Tao Xu.

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Zhang, Y., Zhang, D., Li, X. et al. Contribution of soil fauna to the degradation of recalcitrant components in Cinnamomum camphora foliar litter in different-sized gaps in Pinus massoniana plantations. J. For. Res. 30, 931–941 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0609-6

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