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Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition
Decomposition is an essential ecosystem service driven by interacting biotic and abiotic factors. Increasing temperatures due to climate change can affect soil moisture, soil fauna, and subsequently, decomposition. Understanding how projected climate change scenarios will affect decomposition is of...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8580216/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34758046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259045 |
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author | Figueroa, Laura L. Maran, Audrey Pelini, Shannon L. |
author_facet | Figueroa, Laura L. Maran, Audrey Pelini, Shannon L. |
author_sort | Figueroa, Laura L. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Decomposition is an essential ecosystem service driven by interacting biotic and abiotic factors. Increasing temperatures due to climate change can affect soil moisture, soil fauna, and subsequently, decomposition. Understanding how projected climate change scenarios will affect decomposition is of vital importance for predicting nutrient cycling and ecosystem health. In this study, we experimentally addressed the question of how the early stages of decomposition would vary along a gradient of projected climate change scenarios. Given the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem service provisioning, we measured the effect of invertebrate exclusion on red maple (Acer rubrum) leaf litter breakdown along a temperature gradient using litterbags in warming chambers over a period of five weeks. Leaf litter decomposed more slowly in the warmer chambers and in the litterbag treatment that minimized invertebrate access. Moreover, increasing air temperature reduced invertebrate abundance and richness, and altered the community composition, independent of exclusion treatment. Using structural equation models, we were able to disentangle the effects of average air temperature on leaf litter loss, finding a direct negative effect of warming on the early stages of decomposition, independent of invertebrate abundance. This result indicates that not only can climate change affect the invertebrate community, but may also directly influence how the remaining organisms interact with their environment and their effectiveness at provisioning ecosystem services. Overall, our study highlights the role of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem services and contributes to our understanding of how climate change could disrupt nutrient cycling. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8580216 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85802162021-11-11 Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition Figueroa, Laura L. Maran, Audrey Pelini, Shannon L. PLoS One Research Article Decomposition is an essential ecosystem service driven by interacting biotic and abiotic factors. Increasing temperatures due to climate change can affect soil moisture, soil fauna, and subsequently, decomposition. Understanding how projected climate change scenarios will affect decomposition is of vital importance for predicting nutrient cycling and ecosystem health. In this study, we experimentally addressed the question of how the early stages of decomposition would vary along a gradient of projected climate change scenarios. Given the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem service provisioning, we measured the effect of invertebrate exclusion on red maple (Acer rubrum) leaf litter breakdown along a temperature gradient using litterbags in warming chambers over a period of five weeks. Leaf litter decomposed more slowly in the warmer chambers and in the litterbag treatment that minimized invertebrate access. Moreover, increasing air temperature reduced invertebrate abundance and richness, and altered the community composition, independent of exclusion treatment. Using structural equation models, we were able to disentangle the effects of average air temperature on leaf litter loss, finding a direct negative effect of warming on the early stages of decomposition, independent of invertebrate abundance. This result indicates that not only can climate change affect the invertebrate community, but may also directly influence how the remaining organisms interact with their environment and their effectiveness at provisioning ecosystem services. Overall, our study highlights the role of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem services and contributes to our understanding of how climate change could disrupt nutrient cycling. Public Library of Science 2021-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8580216/ /pubmed/34758046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259045 Text en © 2021 Figueroa et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://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 Figueroa, Laura L. Maran, Audrey Pelini, Shannon L. Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition |
title | Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition |
title_full | Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition |
title_fullStr | Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition |
title_full_unstemmed | Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition |
title_short | Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition |
title_sort | increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8580216/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34758046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259045 |
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