Affiliation:
1. Institute for Forest Resources and Environment of Guizhou, Key Laboratory of Forest Cultivation in Plateau Mountain of Guizhou Province, College of Forestry, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
2. National Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Laboratory of Forest Resources Conservation and Ecological Safety on the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, Sichuan Province Key Laboratory of Ecological Forestry Engineering on the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
3. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Abstract
According to the widely accepted triangle model, global litter decomposition is collectively controlled by climate, litter initial quality, and decomposers. However, the specific contribution of soil arthropods to litter, especially the non-leaf litter, the decomposition of terrestrial ecosystems and its drivers are still unclear. We conducted a global meta-analysis based on 268 pairs of data to determine the contribution and pattern of soil arthropods to branch, stem, and root litter decomposition in farmlands, forests, and grasslands and analyzed the relationship of soil arthropods’ decomposition effect and potential drivers. Our results showed that: (1) soil arthropods increased global non-leaf litter mass loss by 32.3%; (2) the contribution varied with climate zone and ecosystem type, with a value of subtropical (53.3%) > temperate (18.7%) > tropical (14.7%) and of farmlands (40.6%) > grasslands (34.3%) > forests (0.6%), respectively; (3) the soil arthropods’ decomposition effect gradually decreased with decomposition time, and it was higher in litterbags with a mesh size of 1–2 mm (65.4%) and >2 mm (49.8%) than that of 0.5–1 mm (13.6%); (4) the soil arthropods’ decomposition effects were negatively correlated with the litter initial C/N ratio, mean annual precipitation (MAP; p < 0.001), and elevation and was positively correlated with litter weight. In conclusion, soil arthropod promoted global non-leaf litter decomposition, and the contribution varied with climate zone, ecosystem type, and decomposition time as well as litterbag mesh size. Overall, this study improves the understanding of soil arthropods driving global non-leaf litter decomposition.
Funder
Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Projects
Natural Science Project of Guizhou University
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