Mass loss and nutrient dynamics during litter decomposition in response to warming and nitrogen addition in a desert steppe

Abstract

Plant litter decomposition has been studied extensively in the context of both warming and increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition. However, the temporal patterns of mass loss and nutrient release in response to warming and nitrogen addition remain unclear. A 2-year decomposition experiment aimed to examine the effects of warming and nitrogen addition on decomposition rate, and nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics. The effects of warming and nitrogen addition on decomposition of litter of Stipa breviflora, a dominant species in a desert steppe of northern China, were studied. Warming and nitrogen addition significantly enhanced litter mass loss by 10% and 16%, respectively, and moreover promoted nitrogen and phosphorus release from the litter in the first year of decomposition, followed by an immobilization period. The interactive effects of warming and nitrogen addition on mass loss, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of litter were also found during the decomposition. This study indicates that warming and nitrogen addition increased litter mass loss through altering litter quality. These findings highlight that interactions between climate change and other global change factors could be highly important in driving decomposition responses.

Keywords

climate warming / grassland / litter decomposition / nitrogen deposition / nutrient release

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for Advanced Talents by Inner Mongolia Agricultural University (NDGCC2016-19), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31760146, 31770500), National Key Project (2016YFC0500504) and the Innovative Team of Grassland Resources from the Ministry of Education of China (IRT_17R59). The research base has received long-term support from the Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences. We appreciate the help of many students in collecting samples and maintaining the experimental site over many years.

Supplementary materials

The online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2017194 contains supplementary materials (Tables S1–S3).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Haiyan Ren, Jie Qin, Baolong Yan, Alata, Baoyinhexige, and Guodong Han declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2018. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)