Dataset Information

Controls on coarse wood decay in temperate tree species: birth of the LOGLIFE experiment.

ABSTRACT: Dead wood provides a huge terrestrial carbon stock and a habitat to wide-ranging organisms during its decay. Our brief review highlights that, in order to understand environmental change impacts on these functions, we need to quantify the contributions of different interacting biotic and abiotic drivers to wood decomposition. LOGLIFE is a new long-term 'common-garden' experiment to disentangle the effects of species' wood traits and site-related environmental drivers on wood decomposition dynamics and its associated diversity of microbial and invertebrate communities. This experiment is firmly rooted in pioneering experiments under the directorship of Terry Callaghan at Abisko Research Station, Sweden. LOGLIFE features two contrasting forest sites in the Netherlands, each hosting a similar set of coarse logs and branches of 10 tree species. LOGLIFE welcomes other researchers to test further questions concerning coarse wood decay that will also help to optimise forest management in view of carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation.

SUBMITTER: Cornelissen JH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3535053 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Controls on coarse wood decay in temperate tree species: birth of the LOGLIFE experiment.

Cornelissen Johannes H C JH Sass-Klaassen Ute U Poorter Lourens L van Geffen Koert K van Logtestijn Richard S P RS van Hal Jurgen J Goudzwaard Leo L Sterck Frank J FJ Klaassen René K W M RK Freschet Grégoire T GT van der Wal Annemieke A Eshuis Henk H Zuo Juan J de Boer Wietse W Lamers Teun T Weemstra Monique M Cretin Vincent V Martin Rozan R Ouden Jan den Jd Berg Matty P MP Aerts Rien R Mohren Godefridus M J GM Hefting Mariet M MM

Ambio 20120101

Dead wood provides a huge terrestrial carbon stock and a habitat to wide-ranging organisms during its decay. Our brief review highlights that, in order to understand environmental change impacts on these functions, we need to quantify the contributions of different interacting biotic and abiotic drivers to wood decomposition. LOGLIFE is a new long-term 'common-garden' experiment to disentangle the effects of species' wood traits and site-related environmental drivers on wood decomposition dynami ...[more]

PMID: 22864697

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Project description:Empirical evidence suggests that the rich set of ecosystem functions and nature's contributions to people provided by forests depends on tree diversity. Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research revealed that not only species richness per se but also other facets of tree diversity, such as tree identity, have to be considered to understand the underlying mechanisms. One important ecosystem function in forests is the decomposition of deadwood that plays a vital role in carbon and nutrient cycling and is assumed to be determined by above- and belowground interactions. However, the actual influence of tree diversity on wood decay in forests remains inconclusive. Recent studies suggest an important role of microclimate and advocate a systematical consideration of small-scale environmental conditions. We studied the influence of tree species richness, tree species identity, and microclimatic conditions on wood decomposition in a 12-year-old tree diversity experiment in Germany, containing six native species within a tree species richness gradient. We assessed wood mass loss, soil microbial properties, and soil surface temperature in high temporal resolution. Our study shows a significant influence of tree species identity on all three variables. The presence of Scots pine strongly increased wood mass loss, while the presence of Norway spruce decreased it. This could be attributed to structural differences in the litter layer that were modifying the capability of plots to hold the soil surface temperature at night, consequently leading to enhanced decomposition rates in plots with higher nighttime surface temperatures. Therefore, our study confirmed the critical role of microclimate for wood decomposition in forests and showed that soil microbial properties alone were not sufficient to predict wood decay. We conclude that tree diversity effects on ecosystem functions may include different biodiversity facets, such as tree identity, tree traits, and functional and structural diversity, in influencing the abiotic and biotic soil properties.

Dataset Information

Controls on coarse wood decay in temperate tree species: birth of the LOGLIFE experiment.

Publications

Controls on coarse wood decay in temperate tree species: birth of the LOGLIFE experiment.

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