2019
DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2745
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Thermal abiotic emission of CO2 and CH4 from leaf litter and its significance in a photodegradation assessment

Abstract: Photodegradation has been recognized as a significant driver of plant litter decomposition in drylands. Another potential driver is the thermal emission of trace gases that occurs in the absence of solar radiation and microbial activity. Most field assessments documenting photodegradation have employed filters that absorb solar radiation, along with transparent filter controls; faster litter decay under transparent filters is taken as evidence of photodegradation. However, the temperature of litter under trans… Show more

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Cited by 23 publications
(5 citation statements)
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“…The puzzle of why plant litter decomposition in arid-lands is decoupled from annual precipitation and is faster than expected based on microbial decomposition models has bothered scientists for half a century 7,34,35 , and was later termed the desert decomposition conundrum 36 . Attempts to resolve this conundrum have focused predominantly on abiotic weathering agents, such as photodegradation 37,38 and thermal degradation 39 , alternative sources of moisture such as fog, dew and atmospheric water vapor 40 and soil–litter mixing 36,41 . We, in turn, hypothesized that the opposing climatic dependencies of macrofauna and that of microorganisms and mesofauna should lead to similar overall decomposition rates across precipitation gradients, except in hyperarid environments in which decomposers activity is predicted to be minimal regardless of organism size.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The puzzle of why plant litter decomposition in arid-lands is decoupled from annual precipitation and is faster than expected based on microbial decomposition models has bothered scientists for half a century 7,34,35 , and was later termed the desert decomposition conundrum 36 . Attempts to resolve this conundrum have focused predominantly on abiotic weathering agents, such as photodegradation 37,38 and thermal degradation 39 , alternative sources of moisture such as fog, dew and atmospheric water vapor 40 and soil–litter mixing 36,41 . We, in turn, hypothesized that the opposing climatic dependencies of macrofauna and that of microorganisms and mesofauna should lead to similar overall decomposition rates across precipitation gradients, except in hyperarid environments in which decomposers activity is predicted to be minimal regardless of organism size.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In this important paper and many of the studies that followed, the researchers used litter bags or cages covered with mesh that exclude macrofauna and prevent litter redistribution, to assess litter mass loss in the presence or absence of focal abiotic factors. These studies offer strong experimental evidence that photodegradation, thermal degradation, and alternative sources of moisture, such as fog, dew, and atmospheric water vapor, can assist in explaining the unexpectedly high decomposition rate of exposed plant litter [14][15][16]. However, these studies also unintentionally narrow the original question of how "a considerable proportion of litter and standing dead material of ephemeral plants has been observed to disappear even in dry periods" [4] to the much-reduced question of what abiotic factors accelerate the decomposition of exposed surface litter that is neither being transported and ingested by macrofauna nor being transported and mixed with soil by wind or water flow.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…The magnitude of thermal degradation is minimal below 30°C but increases exponentially above 50°C (B. Wang et al., 2017; J. Wang et al., 2017). However, it has been estimated that thermal degradation alone contributes minimally to litter mass loss (1.2%–2%) (Day et al., 2019). At our experimental site, only a few days with transient temperatures above 50°C were recorded in midsummer, and the daily maximum temperature remained below 30°C for most of the time (Figure S1c in Supporting Information ), suggesting a limited influence of thermal degradation on litter decomposition in this study.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%