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Abstract

Decomposition studies were carried out at sites throughout Sweden, including the four Integrated Monitoring sites. Scots pine needle litterbag weight loss measurements over 3 or 5 years were determined at 26 sites and repeated up to 27 times, depending on the site. Humus layer respiration rates were determined for 20 sites in 1987-1989 and repeated in 2007-2008. Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression was used to elucidate the relative importance of climatic and soil factors. Annual needle weight losses decreased only slowly (20-10%) over 3-5 years for all northern (> 60A degrees N) sites but decreased sharply from 30 to 10% in the third year in southern (< 60A degrees N) sites. Respiration rates of southern sites were less (40% on average) than those of northern sites. Humus layer N was positively correlated to needle weight loss during the first and the second years, but negatively correlated in the third year and to respiration rates. The results indicated that litter formed in southern Sweden became more recalcitrant in later stages of decomposition compared to litter produced in northern Sweden.

Keywords

Integrated monitoring; Scots pine litter; Annual decomposition rates; Standard respiration; Recalcitrant; Humus quality; Soil nitrogen; Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression

Published in

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2011, volume: 40, number: 8, pages: 878-890
Publisher: SPRINGER

SLU Authors

Associated SLU-program

Forest
Climate

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0202-0

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/57461