Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Global Ecosystem Ecology, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Ecol Lett. 2021 Jul;24(7):1352-1362. doi: 10.1111/ele.13749. Epub 2021 Apr 24.
Decomposition has historically been considered a function of climate and substrate but new research highlights the significant role of specific micro-organisms and their interactions. In particular, wood decay is better predicted by variation in fungal communities than in climate. Multiple links exist: interspecific competition slows decomposition in more diverse fungal communities, whereas trait variation between different communities also affects process rates. Here, we paired field and laboratory experiments using a dispersal gradient at a forest-shrubland ecotone to examine how fungi affect wood decomposition across scales. We observed that while fungal communities closer to forests were capable of faster decomposition, wood containing diverse fungal communities decomposed more slowly, independent of location. Dispersal-driven stochasticity in small-scale community assembly was nested within large-scale turnover in the regional species pool, decoupling the two patterns. We thus find multiple distinct links between microbes and ecosystem function that manifest across different spatial scales.
历史上，分解被认为是气候和基质的功能，但新的研究强调了特定微生物及其相互作用的重要作用。特别是，真菌群落的变化比气候更能预测木材的腐烂。存在多种联系：种间竞争会减缓真菌群落多样性更高的分解速度，而不同群落之间的特征差异也会影响过程速率。在这里，我们使用森林-灌丛交错带的扩散梯度进行了现场和实验室实验，以研究真菌如何在不同尺度上影响木材分解。我们观察到，尽管更接近森林的真菌群落能够更快地分解，但含有多种真菌群落的木材分解速度更慢，而与位置无关。小尺度群落组装中的扩散驱动随机性嵌套在区域物种库的大尺度周转率中，从而使这两种模式解耦。因此，我们发现微生物和生态系统功能之间存在多种不同的联系，这些联系在不同的空间尺度上表现出来。
