Strong stoichiometric resilience after litter manipulation experiments; a case study in a Chinese grassland

Abstract

Abstract. Global climate change has generally increased net primary production which leads to increasing litter inputs. Therefore assessing the impacts of increasing litter inputs on soil nutrients, plant growth and ecological Carbon (C) : nitrogen (N) : phosphorus (P) stoichiometry is critical for an understanding of C, N and P cycling and their feedback processes to climate change. In this study, we added plant litter to the 10–20 cm subsoil layer under a steppe community at rates equivalent to 0, 150, 300, 600 and 1200 g (dry mass) m−2 and measured the resulting C, N and P content of different pools (above and below ground plant biomass, litter, microbial biomass). High litter addition (120% of the annual litter inputs) significantly increased soil inorganic N and available P, aboveground biomass, belowground biomass and litter. Nevertheless small litter additions, which are more realistic compared to the future predictions, had no effect on the variables examined. Our results suggest that while very high litter addition can strongly affect C : N : P stoichiometry, the grassland studied here is quite resilient to more realistic inputs in terms of stoichiometric functioning. This result highlights the complexity of the ecosystem's response to climate change.