Decomposition of above and belowground organ litters of mid-subtropical woody plants

Abstract

Litter and its decomposition are important processes of carbon and nutrient cycles and substantially affect forest regeneration and species diversity of soil microorganisms. Interspecific variation in decomposition of litter derived from various organs, such as foliar litter, roots, and woody debris, has been increasingly researched in the past decade. In addition, plant functional traits are widely utilized to predict such variation in plant litter decomposition. Due to the difference of resource conditions in different ecosystems, plants form different ecological strategies for nutrient acquisition and metabolization and thereby vary in plant functional traits. Previous studies have shown that plant litter decomposability is correlated with ecological strategy in several ecosystems. In the long process of nutrient and carbon exchange and recycling, plants coordinate the traits of the above and belowground organs to adapt to climate and soil conditions of the growth region. However, the consequences of such coordination for correlation between different organs忆 litter decomposability across species is less known. Therefore, our aim is to investigate the relationship between litter decomposability and ecological strategy in subtropical areas. We analyze the litter decomposition constant (K) of above and belowground organs after one year and two years of incubation by using the litter鄄bag method. We collected litter materials from various plant tissues (foliar litter, twigs, fine roots and coarse roots) from two contrasting sites, one being a limestone