What controls forest litter decomposition? A coordinated distributed teabag experiment across ten mountains

作者：Shiyu Ma, Shengbin Chen, Yi Ding, Zhongsheng He, Gang Hu, Jie Liu, Ya‐Huang Luo, Kun Song, Yongchuan Yang, Xiaolei Huang, Meixiang Gao, Lan Liu, Bo Chen, Xianjin He, Xiaorong Lu, Bingwei Lv, Liang‐Liang Ma, Yani Meng, Zhongping Tian, Hongwei Zhang, Xijin Zhang, Yansong Zhang, Zhaochen Zhang, Shaopeng Li, Jian Zhang · 发表于：Ecography · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1111/ecog.07339 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Ecology and Conservation Studies、Soil erosion and sediment transport、Land Use and Ecosystem Services

Litter decomposition in mountainous forest ecosystems is an essential process that affects carbon and nutrient cycling. However, the contribution of litter decomposition to terrestrial ecosystems is difficult to estimate accurately because of the limited comparability of different studies and limited data on local microclimatic and non‐climatic factors. Here, we designed a coordinated experiment within subtropical and tropical forests across ten mountains to evaluate variation in litter decomposition rates and stabilization. We tested whether elevations, soil microclimate, soil physiochemistry, tree species diversity, and microhabitat affect decomposition rates and stabilization by using the Tea bag index as a standardized protocol. We found that the associations of decomposition rates and stabilization with elevation and each environmental factor varied between mountains. Elevation significantly affected decomposition rates and stabilization in the western mountains, where soil microclimate also played a dominant role due to relatively cold environments. Across all mountains, decomposition rates decreased while stabilization increased with increasing elevation. In terms of microclimate, decomposition rates increased with increasing soil temperature and temperature variation during the growing season, whereas stabilization decreased with increasing soil temperature and moisture variation. In terms of non‐climatic factors, decomposition rates increased with increasing tree spe...