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Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition

BACKGROUND: The decomposition of plant material in arid ecosystems is considered to be substantially controlled by water and N availability. The responses of litter decomposition to external N and water, however, remain controversial, and the interactive effects of supplementary N and water also hav...

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Autores principales: Li, Yulin, Ning, Zhiying, Cui, Duo, Mao, Wei, Bi, Jingdong, Zhao, Xueyong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5019385/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27617439
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162663
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author Li, Yulin
Ning, Zhiying
Cui, Duo
Mao, Wei
Bi, Jingdong
Zhao, Xueyong
author_facet Li, Yulin
Ning, Zhiying
Cui, Duo
Mao, Wei
Bi, Jingdong
Zhao, Xueyong
author_sort Li, Yulin
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The decomposition of plant material in arid ecosystems is considered to be substantially controlled by water and N availability. The responses of litter decomposition to external N and water, however, remain controversial, and the interactive effects of supplementary N and water also have been largely unexamined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A 3.5-year field experiment with supplementary nitrogen and water was conducted to assess the effects of N and water addition on mass loss and nitrogen release in leaves and fine roots of three dominant plant species (i.e., Artemisia halondendron, Setaria viridis, and Phragmites australis) with contrasting substrate chemistry (e.g. N concentration, lignin content in this study) in a desertified dune grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. The treatments included N addition, water addition, combination of N and water, and an untreated control. The decomposition rate in both leaves and roots was related to the initial litter N and lignin concentrations of the three species. However, litter quality did not explain the slower mass loss in roots than in leaves in the present study, and thus warrant further research. Nitrogen addition, either alone or in combination with water, significantly inhibited dry mass loss and N release in the leaves and roots of the three species, whereas water input had little effect on the decomposition of leaf litter and fine roots, suggesting that there was no interactive effect of supplementary N and water on litter decomposition in this system. Furthermore, our results clearly indicate that the inhibitory effects of external N on dry mass loss and nitrogen release are relatively strong in high-lignin litter compared with low-lignin litter. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that increasing precipitation hardly facilitates ecosystem carbon turnover but atmospheric N deposition can enhance carbon sequestration and nitrogen retention in desertified dune grasslands of northern China. Additionally, litter quality of plant species should be considered when modelling the carbon cycle and nutrient dynamics of this system.
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spelling pubmed-50193852016-09-27 Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition Li, Yulin Ning, Zhiying Cui, Duo Mao, Wei Bi, Jingdong Zhao, Xueyong PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The decomposition of plant material in arid ecosystems is considered to be substantially controlled by water and N availability. The responses of litter decomposition to external N and water, however, remain controversial, and the interactive effects of supplementary N and water also have been largely unexamined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A 3.5-year field experiment with supplementary nitrogen and water was conducted to assess the effects of N and water addition on mass loss and nitrogen release in leaves and fine roots of three dominant plant species (i.e., Artemisia halondendron, Setaria viridis, and Phragmites australis) with contrasting substrate chemistry (e.g. N concentration, lignin content in this study) in a desertified dune grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. The treatments included N addition, water addition, combination of N and water, and an untreated control. The decomposition rate in both leaves and roots was related to the initial litter N and lignin concentrations of the three species. However, litter quality did not explain the slower mass loss in roots than in leaves in the present study, and thus warrant further research. Nitrogen addition, either alone or in combination with water, significantly inhibited dry mass loss and N release in the leaves and roots of the three species, whereas water input had little effect on the decomposition of leaf litter and fine roots, suggesting that there was no interactive effect of supplementary N and water on litter decomposition in this system. Furthermore, our results clearly indicate that the inhibitory effects of external N on dry mass loss and nitrogen release are relatively strong in high-lignin litter compared with low-lignin litter. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that increasing precipitation hardly facilitates ecosystem carbon turnover but atmospheric N deposition can enhance carbon sequestration and nitrogen retention in desertified dune grasslands of northern China. Additionally, litter quality of plant species should be considered when modelling the carbon cycle and nutrient dynamics of this system. Public Library of Science 2016-09-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5019385/ /pubmed/27617439 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162663 Text en © 2016 Li 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Li, Yulin
Ning, Zhiying
Cui, Duo
Mao, Wei
Bi, Jingdong
Zhao, Xueyong
Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition
title Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition
title_full Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition
title_fullStr Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition
title_full_unstemmed Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition
title_short Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition
title_sort litter decomposition in a semiarid dune grassland: neutral effect of water supply and inhibitory effect of nitrogen addition
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5019385/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27617439
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162663
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