Decomposition of Leaf Litter in a U.S. Saltmarsh is Driven by Dominant Species, Not Species Complementarity

Treplin, Malte; Pennings, Steven C.; Zimmer, Martin

doi:10.1007/s13157-012-0353-1

Cited by 23 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Another study, on the contrary, corroborated our results by testing land snails together with litter consuming crabs where the species mixture did not increase decomposition rates and decomposition was rather controlled by the dominant species (Treplin et al. ). Similarly, Heemsbergen et al.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

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Disentangling community functional components in a litter‐macrodetritivore model system reveals the predominance of the mass ratio hypothesis

Bílá¹,

Moretti²,

Bello

et al. 2014

Ecology and Evolution

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Recent investigations have shown that two components of community trait composition are important for key ecosystem processes: (i) the community-weighted mean trait value (CWM), related to the mass ratio hypothesis and dominant trait values in the community, and (ii) functional diversity (FD), related to the complementarity hypothesis and the divergence of trait values. However, no experiments controlling for the inherent dependence between CWM and FD have been conducted so far. We used a novel experimental framework to disentangle the unique and shared effects of CWM and FD in a leaf litter-macrodetritivore model system. We manipulated isopod assemblages varying in species number, CWM and FD of litter consumption rate to test the relative contribution of these community parameters in the decomposition process. We showed that CWM, but also the combination of CWM and FD, is a main factor controlling litter decomposition. When we tested individual biodiversity components separately, CWM of litter consumption rate showed a significant effect on decomposition, while FD and species richness alone did not. Our study demonstrated that (i) trait composition rather than species diversity drives litter decomposition, (ii) dominant trait values in the community (CWM) play a chief role in driving ecosystem processes, corroborating the mass ratio hypothesis, and (iii) trait dissimilarity can contribute in modulating the overall biodiversity effects. Future challenge is to assess whether the generality of our finding, that is, that dominant trait values (CWM) predominate over trait dissimilarity (FD), holds for other ecosystem processes, environmental conditions and different spatial and temporal scales.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“… 2011 ; Treplin et al. 2013 ). We used terrestrial isopods as a model organism, as they represent a dominant component within macrodetritivores in many ecosystems around the world (Anderson 1977 ; Lavelle and Spain 2001 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling community functional components in a litter‐macrodetritivore model system reveals the predominance of the mass ratio hypothesis

Bílá¹,

Moretti²,

Bello

et al. 2014

Ecology and Evolution

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“…As predicted in the second hypothesis, we found that the presence of detritivores increased root mass loss. Detritivores commonly speed up root litter mass loss (Liu & Zou, 2002;McGlynn & Poirson, 2012;Treplin et al, 2013) via feeding on and fragmenting root litter. Here we show that the presence of detritivores modified how root litter richness affected decomposition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the "mass ratio hypothesis" predicts that dominant plant species strongly influence ecosystem functioning (Grime, 1998;Smith & Knapp, 2003), including decomposition (Cárdenas, Donoso, Argoti, & Dangles, 2017). In the case of decomposition, plant species with specific functional traits are key drivers of litter breakdown, because they have a strong impact on microbial decomposers and detritivores (Milcu, Partsch, Scherber, Weisser, & Scheu, 2008;Treplin, Pennings, & Zimmer, 2013;Wardle, Bonner, & Nicholson, 1997). Moreover, detritivores and microbial decomposers selectively use heterogeneous resources supplied by different constituent plant species within leaf litter mixtures (Hättenschwiler & Gasser, 2005;Heemsbergen et al, 2004;Mukhopadhyay, Roy, & Joy, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, detritivores and microbial decomposers selectively use heterogeneous resources supplied by different constituent plant species within leaf litter mixtures (Hättenschwiler & Gasser, 2005;Heemsbergen et al, 2004;Mukhopadhyay, Roy, & Joy, 2014). Detritivores and microbial decomposers preferentially utilize nutrient-rich leaf litter to maximize energy intake and optimize the nutrient balance of their tissues (Treplin et al, 2013), while avoiding plant species with inhibiting compounds, such as tannins (Coq, Souquet, Meudec, Cheynier, & Hättenschwiler, 2010). This selective utilization of specific species in leaf litter mixtures leads to selection effects (Loreau & Hector, 2001) in the decomposition of mixed leaf litter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Negative effects of litter richness on root decomposition in the presence of detritivores

Chen

Veen

et al. 2018

Functional Ecology

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Decomposition is a vital process underlying many ecosystem functions. Although a growing number of studies have tested how litter richness affects the decomposition of above‐ground plant organs, knowledge remains limited about the decomposition of root mixtures. Here, we used a field experiment in a subtropical forest to investigate how species richness in root litter mixtures (air‐dried fresh fine roots) affects the decomposition of root litter material. On the basis of the concept of resource complementarity, we hypothesized that root litter would decompose faster as the richness of the root litter mixture increased. In addition, we expected the presence of detritivores would modify the effect of root richness on mass loss, because detritivores might experience bottom‐up effects from specific plant species and might affect microbial decomposer communities. We found that the richness level of root litter mixtures did not affect mass loss in the absence of detritivores. In the presence of detritivores, all root litter types decomposed faster. Notably, the positive effect of detritivores was stronger at low root litter richness than at high root litter richness, particularly during the early stages of decomposition (the first two sampling points) when litter mass loss was roughly double at low root litter richness compared to that at high root litter richness. The composition of the root fungal community measured at the last sampling point did not differ significantly across root richness levels, and was not affected by the presence of detritivores. Synthesis. Our findings demonstrate that detritivores modify the relationship between root litter diversity and root litter decomposition in subtropical forest ecosystems. This highlights an importance of cascade effects between different trophic organisms on ecosystem functioning. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13057/suppinfo is available for this article.

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Drivers of litter mass loss and faunal composition of detritus patches change over time

Seer

Putze

Pennings

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Decomposition of Leaf Litter in a U.S. Saltmarsh is Driven by Dominant Species, Not Species Complementarity

Cited by 23 publications

References 44 publications

Disentangling community functional components in a litter‐macrodetritivore model system reveals the predominance of the mass ratio hypothesis

Disentangling community functional components in a litter‐macrodetritivore model system reveals the predominance of the mass ratio hypothesis

Negative effects of litter richness on root decomposition in the presence of detritivores

Drivers of litter mass loss and faunal composition of detritus patches change over time

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