Litter Mass Loss Rates in Pine Forests of Europe and Eastern United States: Some Relationships with Climate and Litter Quality

The purpose of this study was to relate regional variation in litter mass-loss rates (first year) in pine forests to climate across a large, continental-scale area. The variation in mass-loss rate was analyzed using 39 experimental sites spanning climatic regions from the subarctic to subtropical an...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biogeochemistry 1993-09, Vol.20 (3), p.127-159
Main Authors: Berg, B., Berg, M. P., Bottner, P., Box, E., Breymeyer, A., De Anta, R. Calvo, Couteaux, M., Escudero, A., Gallardo, A., Kratz, W., Madeira, M., Mälkönen, E., McClaugherty, C., Meentemeyer, V., Muñoz, F., Piussi, P., Remacle, J., De Santo, A. Virzo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions
Altitude
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Bgi / Prodig
Biogeography
Biological and medical sciences
Chemical, physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties
Climate change
Climate models
Climatic zones
Coniferous forests
Ecosystems and biological productivity
Forest litter
Forest soils
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Ground vegetation
Humus
Organic matter
Physical geography
Physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology of agricultural and forest soils
Plant litter
Soil science
Synecology
Terrestrial ecosystems
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to relate regional variation in litter mass-loss rates (first year) in pine forests to climate across a large, continental-scale area. The variation in mass-loss rate was analyzed using 39 experimental sites spanning climatic regions from the subarctic to subtropical and Mediterranean: the latitudinal gradient ranged from 31 °N to 70 °N and may represent the the largest geographical area that has ever been sampled and observed for the purpose of studying biogeochemical processes. Because of unified site design and uniform laboratory procedures, data from all sites were directly comparable and permitted a determination of the relative influence of climate versus substrate quality viewed from the perspective of broad regional scales. Simple correlation applied to the entire data set indicated that annual actual evapotranspiration (AET) should be the leading climatic constraint on mass-loss rates (Radj2=0.496). The combination of AET, average July temp. and average annual temp. could explain about 70% of the sites' variability on litter mass-loss. In an analysis of 23 Scots pine sites north of the Alps and Carpatians AET alone could account for about 65% of the variation and the addition of a substrate-quality variable was sufficiently significant to be used in a model. The influence of litter quality was introduced into a model, using data from 11 sites at which litter of different quality had been incubated. These sites are found in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. At any one site most (> 90%) of the variation in mass-loss rates could be explained by one of the litter-quality variables giving concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus or water solubles. However, even when these models included nitrogen or phosphorus even small changes in potential evapotranspiration resulted in large changes in early-phase decay rates. Further regional subdivision of the data set, resulted in a range of strength in the relationship between loss rate and climatic variables, from very weak in Central Europe to strong for the Scandinavian and Atlantic coast sites (Radj2=0.912; AET versus litter mass loss). Much of the variation in observed loss rates could be related to continental versus marine/Atlantic influences. Inland locations had mass-loss rates lower than should be expected on the basis of for example AET alone. Attempts to include seasonality variables were not successful. It is clear that either unknown errors and biases, or, unk
ISSN:0168-2563
1573-515X
DOI:10.1007/BF00000785