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Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition

BACKGROUND: Forest litter decomposition is a major component of the global carbon (C) budget, and is greatly affected by the atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition observed globally. However, the effects of N addition on forest litter decomposition, in ecosystems receiving increasingly higher levels of...

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Autores principales: Tu, Li-hua, Hu, Hong-ling, Chen, Gang, Peng, Yong, Xiao, Yin-long, Hu, Ting-xing, Zhang, Jian, Li, Xian-wei, Liu, Li, Tang, Yi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3925158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24551152
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088752
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author Tu, Li-hua
Hu, Hong-ling
Chen, Gang
Peng, Yong
Xiao, Yin-long
Hu, Ting-xing
Zhang, Jian
Li, Xian-wei
Liu, Li
Tang, Yi
author_facet Tu, Li-hua
Hu, Hong-ling
Chen, Gang
Peng, Yong
Xiao, Yin-long
Hu, Ting-xing
Zhang, Jian
Li, Xian-wei
Liu, Li
Tang, Yi
author_sort Tu, Li-hua
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Forest litter decomposition is a major component of the global carbon (C) budget, and is greatly affected by the atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition observed globally. However, the effects of N addition on forest litter decomposition, in ecosystems receiving increasingly higher levels of ambient N deposition, are poorly understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a two-year field experiment in five forests along the western edge of the Sichuan Basin in China, where atmospheric N deposition was up to 82–114 kg N ha(–1) in the study sites. Four levels of N treatments were applied: (1) control (no N added), (2) low-N (50 kg N ha(–1) year(–1)), (3) medium-N (150 kg N ha(–1) year(–1)), and (4) high-N (300 kg N ha(–1) year(–1)), N additions ranging from 40% to 370% of ambient N deposition. The decomposition processes of ten types of forest litters were then studied. Nitrogen additions significantly decreased the decomposition rates of six types of forest litters. N additions decreased forest litter decomposition, and the mass of residual litter was closely correlated to residual lignin during the decomposition process over the study period. The inhibitory effect of N addition on litter decomposition can be primarily explained by the inhibition of lignin decomposition by exogenous inorganic N. The overall decomposition rate of ten investigated substrates exhibited a significant negative linear relationship with initial tissue C/N and lignin/N, and significant positive relationships with initial tissue K and N concentrations; these relationships exhibited linear and logarithmic curves, respectively. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study suggests that the expected progressive increases in N deposition may have a potential important impact on forest litter decomposition in the study area in the presence of high levels of ambient N deposition.
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spelling pubmed-39251582014-02-18 Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition Tu, Li-hua Hu, Hong-ling Chen, Gang Peng, Yong Xiao, Yin-long Hu, Ting-xing Zhang, Jian Li, Xian-wei Liu, Li Tang, Yi PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Forest litter decomposition is a major component of the global carbon (C) budget, and is greatly affected by the atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition observed globally. However, the effects of N addition on forest litter decomposition, in ecosystems receiving increasingly higher levels of ambient N deposition, are poorly understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a two-year field experiment in five forests along the western edge of the Sichuan Basin in China, where atmospheric N deposition was up to 82–114 kg N ha(–1) in the study sites. Four levels of N treatments were applied: (1) control (no N added), (2) low-N (50 kg N ha(–1) year(–1)), (3) medium-N (150 kg N ha(–1) year(–1)), and (4) high-N (300 kg N ha(–1) year(–1)), N additions ranging from 40% to 370% of ambient N deposition. The decomposition processes of ten types of forest litters were then studied. Nitrogen additions significantly decreased the decomposition rates of six types of forest litters. N additions decreased forest litter decomposition, and the mass of residual litter was closely correlated to residual lignin during the decomposition process over the study period. The inhibitory effect of N addition on litter decomposition can be primarily explained by the inhibition of lignin decomposition by exogenous inorganic N. The overall decomposition rate of ten investigated substrates exhibited a significant negative linear relationship with initial tissue C/N and lignin/N, and significant positive relationships with initial tissue K and N concentrations; these relationships exhibited linear and logarithmic curves, respectively. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study suggests that the expected progressive increases in N deposition may have a potential important impact on forest litter decomposition in the study area in the presence of high levels of ambient N deposition. Public Library of Science 2014-02-14 /pmc/articles/PMC3925158/ /pubmed/24551152 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088752 Text en © 2014 Tu et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Tu, Li-hua
Hu, Hong-ling
Chen, Gang
Peng, Yong
Xiao, Yin-long
Hu, Ting-xing
Zhang, Jian
Li, Xian-wei
Liu, Li
Tang, Yi
Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition
title Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition
title_full Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition
title_fullStr Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition
title_full_unstemmed Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition
title_short Nitrogen Addition Significantly Affects Forest Litter Decomposition under High Levels of Ambient Nitrogen Deposition
title_sort nitrogen addition significantly affects forest litter decomposition under high levels of ambient nitrogen deposition
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3925158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24551152
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088752
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