Abstract

In order to analyse temperature effects on decomposition of organic matter, we tested the following hypothesis: Can an Arrhenius type of equation with constant parameter values for the temperature response of decomposer growth rate adequately describe decomposition of organic matter or must some additional properties be made functions of temperature? Possible temperature effects were analysed by aggregating data in different ways from an experiment with C-14-labelled wheat material incubated in the laboratory at different temperatures and with soil materials collected from seven coniferous forest stands in Europe. Our analysis shows that it is possible to let all the temperature dependence reside in the decomposer growth rate. The analysis also supports the use of an Arrhenius type of equation for the temperature response of decomposer growth rate but with the parameters specific for each soil, or at least a distinction between organic and mineral horizons seems necessary

Published in

Global Change Biology
2005, Volume: 11, number: 5, pages: 770-778
Publisher: BLACKWELL PUBLISHING LTD

SLU Authors

• Hyvönen, Riitta

  • Department of Ecology and Environmental Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Ågren, Göran

  • Department of Ecology and Environmental Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2005.00947.x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/7830