Journal ArticleDOI
Diversity meets decomposition
Mark O. Gessner,Mark O. Gessner,Christopher M. Swan,Christian K. Dang,Christian K. Dang,Brendan G. McKie,Richard D. Bardgett,Diana H. Wall,Stephan Hättenschwiler +8 more
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
It is suggested that changes in species diversity within and across trophic levels can significantly alter decomposition and this happens through various mechanisms that are broadly similar in forest floors and streams.Abstract:
Over 100 gigatons of terrestrial plant biomass are produced globally each year. Ninety percent of this biomass escapes herbivory and enters the dead organic matter pool, thus supporting complex detritus-based food webs that determine the critical balance between carbon mineralization and sequestration. How will changes in biodiversity affect this vital component of ecosystem functioning? Based on our analysis of concepts and experiments of leaf decomposition in forest floors and streams, we suggest that changes in species diversity within and across trophic levels can significantly alter decomposition. This happens through various mechanisms that are broadly similar in forest floors and streams. Differences in diversity effects between these systems relate to divergent habitat conditions and evolutionary trajectories of aquatic and terrestrial decomposers.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Defaunation in the Anthropocene
TL;DR: Defaunation is both a pervasive component of the planet’s sixth mass extinction and also a major driver of global ecological change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Soil enzymes in a changing environment: Current knowledge and future directions
Richard G. Burns,Jared L. DeForest,Juergen Marxsen,Robert L. Sinsabaugh,Mary E. Stromberger,Matthew D. Wallenstein,Michael N. Weintraub,Annamaria Zoppini +7 more
TL;DR: The collective vision of the future of extracellular enzyme research is offered: one that will depend on imaginative thinking as well as technological advances, and be built upon synergies between diverse disciplines.
Journal ArticleDOI
Intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity across Europe
Maria A. Tsiafouli,Elisa Thébault,Stefanos P. Sgardelis,Peter C. de Ruiter,Wim H. van der Putten,Klaus Birkhofer,Lia Hemerik,Franciska T. de Vries,Richard D. Bardgett,Mark Brady,Lisa Bjørnlund,Helene Bracht Jørgensen,Soren Christensen,Tina D’ Hertefeldt,Stefan Hotes,Stefan Hotes,W. H. Gera Hol,Jan Frouz,Mira Liiri,Simon R. Mortimer,Heikki Setälä,Joseph Tzanopoulos,Karoline Uteseny,Václav Pižl,Josef Stary,Volkmar Wolters,Katarina Hedlund +26 more
TL;DR: Intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity, making soil food webs less diverse and composed of smaller bodied organisms, and how changes in soil biodiversity due to land-use intensification may threaten the functioning of soil in agricultural production systems is discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Riparian plant litter quality increases with latitude
Luz Boyero,Manuel A. S. Graça,Alan M. Tonin,Javier Pérez,Andrew J. M. Swafford,Verónica Ferreira,Andrea Landeira-Dabarca,Andrea Landeira-Dabarca,Markos A. Alexandrou,Mark O. Gessner,Mark O. Gessner,Brendan G. McKie,Ricardo J. Albariño,Leon A. Barmuta,Marcos Callisto,Julián Chará,Eric Chauvet,Checo Colón-Gaud,David Dudgeon,Andrea C. Encalada,Andrea C. Encalada,Ricardo Figueroa,Alexander S. Flecker,Tadeusz Fleituch,André Frainer,André Frainer,José F. Gonçalves,Julie E. Helson,Tomoya Iwata,Jude M. Mathooko,Charles M'Erimba,Catherine M. Pringle,Alonso Ramírez,Christopher M. Swan,Catherine M. Yule,Richard G. Pearson +35 more
TL;DR: It is hypothesized that litter quality would increase with latitude (despite variation within regions) and traits would be correlated to produce ‘syndromes’ resulting from phylogeny and environmental variation, and it is found lower litter quality and higher nitrogen:phosphorus ratios in the tropics.
Journal ArticleDOI
Consequences of biodiversity loss for litter decomposition across biomes
I. Tanya Handa,Rien Aerts,Frank Berendse,Matty P. Berg,Andreas Bruder,Olaf Butenschoen,Eric Chauvet,Mark O. Gessner,Jérémy Jabiol,Marika Makkonen,Brendan G. McKie,Björn Malmqvist,Edwin T. H. M. Peeters,Stefan Scheu,Bernhard Schmid,Jasper van Ruijven,Veronique C. A. Vos,Stephan Hättenschwiler +17 more
TL;DR: Reducing the functional diversity of decomposer organisms and plant litter types slowed the cycling of litter carbon and nitrogen, and the emergence of this general mechanism and the coherence of patterns across contrasting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems suggest that biodiversity loss has consistent consequences for litter decomposition and the Cycling of major elements on broad spatial scales.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Global biodiversity scenarios for the year 2100.
Osvaldo E. Sala,F. S. Chapin,Juan J. Armesto,Eric L. Berlow,Janine Bloomfield,Rodolfo Dirzo,E Huber-Sanwald,Laura Foster Huenneke,Robert B. Jackson,Ann P. Kinzig,Rik Leemans,David M. Lodge,Harold A. Mooney,Martín Oesterheld,N L Poff,Martin T. Sykes,Brian Walker,Marilyn D. Walker,Diana H. Wall +18 more
TL;DR: This study identified a ranking of the importance of drivers of change, aranking of the biomes with respect to expected changes, and the major sources of uncertainties in projections of future biodiversity change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Freshwater biodiversity: importance, threats, status and conservation challenges
David Dudgeon,Angela Arthington,Mark O. Gessner,Zen'ichiro Kawabata,Duncan Knowler,Christian Lévêque,Robert J. Naiman,Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard,Doris Soto,Melanie L. J. Stiassny,Caroline A Sullivan +10 more
TL;DR: This article explores the special features of freshwater habitats and the biodiversity they support that makes them especially vulnerable to human activities and advocates continuing attempts to check species loss but urges adoption of a compromise position of management for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, and human livelihoods.
Journal ArticleDOI
Resistance, resilience, and redundancy in microbial communities
TL;DR: It is found that the composition of most microbial groups is sensitive and not immediately resilient to disturbance, regardless of taxonomic breadth of the group or the type of disturbance, and a simple framework to incorporate microbial community composition into ecosystem process models is proposed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plant species traits are the predominant control on litter decomposition rates within biomes worldwide
William K. Cornwell,Johannes H. C. Cornelissen,Kathryn L. Amatangelo,Ellen Dorrepaal,Valerie T. Eviner,Oscar Godoy,Sarah E. Hobbie,Bart Hoorens,Hiroko Kurokawa,Hiroko Kurokawa,Natalia Pérez-Harguindeguy,Helen M. Quested,Louis S. Santiago,David A. Wardle,David A. Wardle,Ian J. Wright,Rien Aerts,Steven D. Allison,Peter M. van Bodegom,Victor Brovkin,Alex Chatain,Terry V. Callaghan,Sandra Díaz,Eric Garnier,Diego E. Gurvich,Elena Kazakou,Julia A. Klein,Jenny Read,Peter B. Reich,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,M. Victoria Vaieretti,Mark Westoby +32 more
TL;DR: The magnitude of species-driven differences is much larger than previously thought and greater than climate-driven variation, and the decomposability of a species' litter is consistently correlated with that species' ecological strategy within different ecosystems globally, representing a new connection between whole plant carbon strategy and biogeochemical cycling.
Journal ArticleDOI
Living in a fungal world: impact of fungi on soil bacterial niche development⋆
TL;DR: The emergence of fungi in terrestrial ecosystems must have had a strong impact on the evolution of terrestrial bacteria, and niche differentiation between soil bacteria and fungi involved in the decomposition of plant-derived organic matter is focused on.
Related Papers (5)
Plant species traits are the predominant control on litter decomposition rates within biomes worldwide
William K. Cornwell,Johannes H. C. Cornelissen,Kathryn L. Amatangelo,Ellen Dorrepaal,Valerie T. Eviner,Oscar Godoy,Sarah E. Hobbie,Bart Hoorens,Hiroko Kurokawa,Hiroko Kurokawa,Natalia Pérez-Harguindeguy,Helen M. Quested,Louis S. Santiago,David A. Wardle,David A. Wardle,Ian J. Wright,Rien Aerts,Steven D. Allison,Peter M. van Bodegom,Victor Brovkin,Alex Chatain,Terry V. Callaghan,Sandra Díaz,Eric Garnier,Diego E. Gurvich,Elena Kazakou,Julia A. Klein,Jenny Read,Peter B. Reich,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,M. Victoria Vaieretti,Mark Westoby +32 more