Plant phylogenetic history explains in‐stream decomposition at a global scale

作者：Carri J. LeRoy, Andrew L. Hipp, Kate Lueders, Jennifer J. Follstad Shah, John S. Kominoski, Marcelo Ardón, Walter K. Dodds, Mark O. Gessner, Natalie A. Griffiths, Antoine Lecerf, David W. P. Manning, Robert L. Sinsabaugh, Jack R. Webster · 发表于：Journal of Ecology · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1111/1365-2745.13262 · 被引用次数：48 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecology、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Abstract Evolutionary history and adaptation to climate shape plant traits. Some include leaf traits that influence litter quality. Thus, evolutionary history should affect litter decomposition, a crucial ecosystem process. In addition, litter decomposition is directly influenced by climate. We consequently expect plant phylogeny, adaptation and climate to jointly influence litter decomposition. These effects and their interactions have yet to be untangled at a global scale. Here we present an analysis of variation in litter decomposition rates in rivers and streams across 285 published studies for 239 species (from ferns to angiosperms) distributed at 494 locations world‐wide. We estimated the relative contributions of climatic conditions and phylogenetic heritage on litter decomposition rates, partitioning phylogenetic from climatic effects at the site and species levels using phylogenetic eigenvector analysis and phylogenetic linear mixed models. In addition, we modelled transitions in decomposition rates under a suite of multiple adaptive‐regime Ornstein–Uhlenbeck models to test the hypothesis that natural selection has shaped clade‐level litter decomposition rates. Leaf litter decomposition rate exhibited a significant phylogenetic signal. Modelling decomposition rate as a function of location, climatic niche and phylogeny consistently recovered phylogeny alone as one of the top models in species‐level analyses. Since many previous studies have focused on the same specie...