TY - JOUR
T1 - Abiotic factors affect leaf litter mass loss more strongly than initial litter traits under sand burial conditions
AU - Qu, Hao
AU - Zhao, Xueyong
AU - Wang, Shaokun
AU - Lian, Jie
AU - Tang, Xia
AU - Wang, Xinyuan
AU - Zhang, Rui
AU - Medina-Roldán, Eduardo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41877540& 41801079 ), the National Key Research and Development Plan of China ( 2016YFC0500506 ), the Key Research and Development Plan of Ning Xia Province , China ( 2020BBF02003 ), the Visiting Scholar Research Program of China Scholarship Council ( 201804910131 ). We thank all members of Naiman Desertification Research Station and Urat Desert-grassland Research Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), for their help in field and laboratory work.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877540&41801079), the National Key Research and Development Plan of China (2016YFC0500506), the Key Research and Development Plan of Ning Xia Province, China (2020BBF02003), the Visiting Scholar Research Program of China Scholarship Council (201804910131). We thank all members of Naiman Desertification Research Station and Urat Desert-grassland Research Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), for their help in field and laboratory work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Litter decomposition is an important ecosystem process and a key determinant of nutrient turnover and carbon cycling in arid and semiarid regions. Sand burial is common in arid and semiarid regions and may strongly influence litter decomposition. However, the main factors influencing litter decomposition under sand burial conditions are uncertain. We performed a litter bag experiment over 3 years to understand the effects of sand burial on litter mass loss and measured abiotic factors (light intensity, soil temperature and humidity) and initial litter traits to determine which factors most influenced litter mass losses. The leaf litters of three dominant shrubs (Artemisia halodendron, Caragana microphylla, and Salix gordejevii) in the Horqin Sandy Land of northern China were selected, and four burial depths (surface, 5 cm, 10 cm, and 20 cm) were used. The results showed that the litter from the three shrubs under the surface treatment (no burial) and at the 5 cm burial depth decomposed more rapidly than the litter that was buried at depths of 10 cm and 20 cm. This is explained because the abiotic factors on the surface and at 5 cm burial depth were conducive for the mass loss of litter. The differences in litter mass losses among the three shrubs were not significant under other burial treatments, except that A. halodendron's litter decomposed significantly faster than litter from the other two shrubs at depths of 10 cm. Species differences in litter traits were weaker than the effects of burial depths and retrieval times on litter mass loss. The stepwise regression analysis showed that light intensity and soil temperature were the most important factors influencing the mean litter mass loss of 3 years. Therefore, we concluded that relative to the initial litter traits, abiotic factors are more able to indicate the leaf litter mass loss under sand burial conditions, and abiotic factors limiting litter mass loss switch with burial depths.
AB - Litter decomposition is an important ecosystem process and a key determinant of nutrient turnover and carbon cycling in arid and semiarid regions. Sand burial is common in arid and semiarid regions and may strongly influence litter decomposition. However, the main factors influencing litter decomposition under sand burial conditions are uncertain. We performed a litter bag experiment over 3 years to understand the effects of sand burial on litter mass loss and measured abiotic factors (light intensity, soil temperature and humidity) and initial litter traits to determine which factors most influenced litter mass losses. The leaf litters of three dominant shrubs (Artemisia halodendron, Caragana microphylla, and Salix gordejevii) in the Horqin Sandy Land of northern China were selected, and four burial depths (surface, 5 cm, 10 cm, and 20 cm) were used. The results showed that the litter from the three shrubs under the surface treatment (no burial) and at the 5 cm burial depth decomposed more rapidly than the litter that was buried at depths of 10 cm and 20 cm. This is explained because the abiotic factors on the surface and at 5 cm burial depth were conducive for the mass loss of litter. The differences in litter mass losses among the three shrubs were not significant under other burial treatments, except that A. halodendron's litter decomposed significantly faster than litter from the other two shrubs at depths of 10 cm. Species differences in litter traits were weaker than the effects of burial depths and retrieval times on litter mass loss. The stepwise regression analysis showed that light intensity and soil temperature were the most important factors influencing the mean litter mass loss of 3 years. Therefore, we concluded that relative to the initial litter traits, abiotic factors are more able to indicate the leaf litter mass loss under sand burial conditions, and abiotic factors limiting litter mass loss switch with burial depths.
KW - Horqin Sandy Land
KW - Light intensity
KW - Litter mass loss
KW - Sand burial
KW - Shrubs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090568856&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.catena.2020.104900
DO - 10.1016/j.catena.2020.104900
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090568856
SN - 0341-8162
VL - 196
JO - Catena
JF - Catena
M1 - 104900
ER -
