Worlds apart: Location above- or below-ground determines plant litter decomposition in a semi-arid Patagonian steppe

BERENSTECHER, PAULA; ARAUJO, PATRICIA I.; AUSTIN, AMY T.

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY (PRINT)

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: London; Año: 2021 vol. 109 p. 2885 - 2896

0022-0477

While considerable attention has been devoted to how precipitation modulates net primary productivity in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, the emergence of multi-faceted controls on carbon (C) turnover suggests that there is much to be understood with respect to the mechanistic controls on plant litter decomposition. In the Patagonian steppe, we conducted a long-term factorial experiment, evaluating the importance of position, litter quality, tissue origin and soil resources on rates of C turnover under natural field conditions. Leaf and root litter of dominant grass species were placed in litterbags in different positions, on the soil surface and buried at 5-cm depth, with soil treatments of labile C, nitrogen (N) and their combination (C + N) over a 3-year period. As predicted, leaf litter decomposed significantly (nearly sixfold) faster above-ground than did root litter below-ground (p