Abstract
Litter decomposition is of utmost importance to elemental cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, with litter quality being frequently considered to predominantly control litter decomposition. However, how acid rain (AR) would affect litter decomposition and its elements release remains inconclusive, although AR has widely occurred in Europe, North America, and East Asia. This study was conducted to observe leaf litter decomposition and release of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) of three crops (maize, rice, and soybean) under simulated AR treatments. Results showed that the accumulated mass loss during decomposition was significantly different among species, supporting the view of litter quality predominantly controlling decomposition. Specifically, quality dependence of litter decomposition was observed in the late stage of decomposition, while mass loss of litters was comparable in the first month among species. With decomposition, the litter C/N ratio significantly increased for the three species while the C/P and N/P ratios significantly decreased or tended to decrease, suggesting that litter N was released preferentially over C and P. However, AR treatments did not significantly affect litter decomposition and its elements release in our investigation period. Moreover, litter P content appeared to strongly affect the release of C, N, and P during litter decomposition, and such P dependence could to some extent be alleviated by AR treatments. Our results suggest that AR may change the quality dependence of litter decomposition and further studies are needed to illustrate its potential mechanisms.
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Data availability statement
The data is available on request to the corresponding author.
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This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1701236 and 31500401) and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province of China (2019B030301007).
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JZ, HW, and RM conceived and designed the experiment. RM, LZ, JY, and XS conducted the experimental treatments and sampling analyses. HW, RM, HX, and ZF analyzed and visualized the data. HW wrote the initial draft, and all the authors contributed to the data explanations and draft revisions.
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Wei, H., Ma, R., Zhang, J. et al. Quality dependence of litter decomposition and its carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus release under simulated acid rain treatments. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 19858–19868 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08423-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08423-x