Reading tea leaves worldwide: Decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass-loss rate and stabilization

Sarneel, Judith M.; Hefting, Mariet M.; Sanden, Taru; van den Hoogen, Johan; Routh, Devin; Adhikari, Bhupendra S.; Alatalo, Juha M.; Aleksanyan, Alla; Althuizen, Inge H. J.; Alsafran, Mohammed H. S. A.; Atkins, Jeff W.; Augusto, Laurent; Aurela, Mika; Azarov, Aleksej V.; Barrio, Isabel C.; Beier, Claus; Bejarano, Maria D.; Benham, Sue E.; Berg, Bjorn; Bezler, Nadezhda V.; Bjornsdottir, Katrin; Bolinder, Martin A.; Carbognani, Michele; Gatti, Roberto Cazzolla; Chelli, Stefano; Chistotin, Maxim V.; Christiansen, Casper T.; Courtois, Pascal; Crowther, Thomas W.; Dechoum, Michele S.; Djukic, Ika; Duddigan, Sarah; Egerton-Warburton, Louise M.; Fanin, Nicolas; Fantappie, Maria; Fares, Silvano; Fernandes, Geraldo W.; Filippova, Nina V.; Fliessbach, Andreas; Fuentes, David; Godoy, Roberto; Gruenwald, Thomas; Guzman, Gema; Hawes, Joseph E.; He, Yue; Hero, Jean-Marc; Hess, Laura L.; Hogendoorn, Katja; Hoye, Toke T.; Jans, Wilma W. P.; Jonsdottir, Ingibjorg S.; Keller, Sabina; Kepfer-Rojas, Sebastian; Kuz'menko, Natalya N.; Larsen, Klaus S.; Laudon, Hjalmar; Lembrechts, Jonas J.; Li, Junhui; Limousin, Jean-Marc; Lukin, Sergey M.; Marques, Renato; Marin, Cesar; McDaniel, Marshall D.; Meek, Qi; Merzlaya, Genrietta E.; Michelsen, Anders; Montagnani, Leonardo; Mueller, Peter; Murugan, Rajasekaran; Myers-Smith, Isla H.; Nolte, Stefanie; Ochoa-Hueso, Raul; Okafor, Bernard N.; Okorkov, Vladimir V.; Onipchenko, Vladimir G.; Orozco, Maria C.; Parkhurst, Tina; Peres, Carlos A.; Bon, Matteo Petit; Petraglia, Alessandro; Pingel, Martin; Rebmann, Corinna; Scheffers, Brett R.; Schmidt, Inger; Scholes, Mary C.; Sheffer, Efrat; Shevtsova, Lyudmila K.; Smith, Stuart W.; Sofo, Adriano; Stevenson, Pablo R.; Strouhalova, Barbora; Sundsdal, Anders; Suhs, Rafael B.; Tamene, Gebretsadik; Thomas, Haydn J. D.; Tolunay, Duygu; Tomaselli, Marcello; Tresch, Simon; Tucker, Dominique L.; Ulyshen, Michael D.; Valdecantos, Alejandro; Vandvik, Vigdis; Vanguelova, Elena I.; Verheyen, Kris; Wang, Xuhui; Yahdjian, Laura; Yumashev, Xaris S.; Keuskamp, Joost A.

doi:10.1111/ele.14415

Research article2024Peer reviewedOpen access

Reading tea leaves worldwide: Decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass-loss rate and stabilization

Sarneel, Judith M.; Hefting, Mariet M.; Sanden, Taru; van den Hoogen, Johan; Routh, Devin; Adhikari, Bhupendra S.; Alatalo, Juha M.; Aleksanyan, Alla; Althuizen, Inge H. J.; Alsafran, Mohammed H. S. A.; Atkins, Jeff W.; Augusto, Laurent; Aurela, Mika; Azarov, Aleksej V.; Barrio, Isabel C.; Beier, Claus; Bejarano, Maria D.; Benham, Sue E.; Berg, Bjorn; Bezler, Nadezhda V.;
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Abstract

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial mass-loss rates and stabilization factors of plant-derived carbon, using the Tea Bag Index (TBI). The stabilization factor quantifies the degree to which easy-to-degrade components accumulate during early-stage decomposition (e.g. by environmental limitations). However, agriculture and an interaction between moisture and temperature led to a decoupling between initial mass-loss rates and stabilization, notably in colder locations. Using TBI improved mass-loss estimates of natural litter compared to models that ignored stabilization. Ignoring the transformation of dead plant material to more recalcitrant substances during early-stage decomposition, and the environmental control of this transformation, could overestimate carbon losses during early decomposition in carbon cycle models.

Keywords

citizen science; environmental drivers; global change; litter decomposition; mass loss; soil organic matter formation; stabilization; tea bag index

Published in

Ecology Letters
2024, volume: 27, number: 5, article number: e14415
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

Bolinder, Martin
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Laudon, Hjalmar
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

UKÄ Subject classification

Soil Science
Ecology

Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14415

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/131301