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Bottom-up and top-down regulation of decomposition in a tropical forest

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Abstract

The soil nutrients, microbes, and arthropods of tropical forests are patchy at multiple scales. We asked how these three factors interact to generate patterns of decomposition in 450 100 cm2 litterbags arrayed along a 50 m ridge top in a Panama rainforest. We tested top-down (via grazing by microbivores like collembola and diplopods) and bottom-up (via added N and P) effects on the decomposition of cellulose. By using a 1,000-fold gradient in mesh size we generated a two-fold gradient in arthropod grazing. Microbivore grazing first retarded then ultimately enhanced decomposition rates. Micropulses of N and P (simulating concentrated urine) enhanced neither decomposition rates nor microbivores but increased the abundance of predacious ants. Decomposition rates also varied across the ridge, and were lowest in a plot with the deepest litter and highest soil moisture. These data generate the working hypothesis that N and P cascade upward at grains of 100 cm2 to enhance a major predator in the litter; predators then absorb any increases in microbivores attracted to the extra fungal growth. These population interactions are in turn embedded in mesoscale variability generated by individual tree canopies that drive changes in litter quality and soil moisture.

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Fig. 1a–c
Fig. 2a–d

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to the members of the AntLab, J. Morrison, S. Sedberry, M. Dowling, and J. Shik for helping with the arthropod sorts. T. Valone and two anonymous reviewers provided particularly helpful reviews. The National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0212386, the National Geographic Society, supported this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Rm 314, Norman, OK, 73019-0235, USA

    Ysabel Milton & Michael Kaspari

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama

    Michael Kaspari

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  1. Ysabel Milton
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Correspondence to Michael Kaspari.

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Communicated by Thomas Miller.

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Milton, Y., Kaspari, M. Bottom-up and top-down regulation of decomposition in a tropical forest. Oecologia 153, 163–172 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0710-6

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