Qianyanzhou Ecological Research Station, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Elife. 2020 Jun 26;9:e55813. doi: 10.7554/eLife.55813.
Plant species diversity affects carbon and nutrient cycling during litter decomposition, yet the generality of the direction of this effect and its magnitude remains uncertain. With a meta-analysis including 65 field studies across the Earth's major forest ecosystems, we show here that decomposition was faster when litter was composed of more than one species. These positive biodiversity effects were mostly driven by temperate forests but were more variable in other forests. Litter mixture effects emerged most strongly in early decomposition stages and were related to divergence in litter quality. Litter diversity also accelerated nitrogen, but not phosphorus release, potentially indicating a decoupling of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling and perhaps a shift in ecosystem nutrient limitation with changing biodiversity. Our findings demonstrate the importance of litter diversity effects for carbon and nutrient dynamics during decomposition, and show how these effects vary with litter traits, decomposer complexity and forest characteristics.
植物物种多样性会影响凋落叶分解过程中的碳和养分循环，但这种影响的方向和程度的普遍性仍不确定。通过对全球主要森林生态系统的 65 项野外研究进行元分析，我们发现当凋落叶由多个物种组成时，分解速度会加快。这些积极的生物多样性效应主要是由温带森林驱动的，但在其他森林中则更为多变。凋落叶混合效应在早期分解阶段最为明显，与凋落叶质量的差异有关。凋落叶多样性还加速了氮的释放，但对磷的释放没有影响，这可能表明氮磷循环的解耦，以及随着生物多样性的变化，生态系统养分限制的可能转变。我们的研究结果表明，凋落叶多样性对分解过程中的碳和养分动态具有重要意义，并展示了这些效应如何随凋落叶特性、分解者复杂性和森林特征而变化。
