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Temperature and Moisture Modulate the Contribution of Soil Fauna to Litter Decomposition via Different Pathways

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Abstract

Soil fauna are crucial decomposers in terrestrial ecosystems, but how the role of soil fauna varies among climatic conditions and litter substrates remains poorly understood. Here, we conducted a four-year litter decomposition experiment along an elevational gradient (453 m, 945 m, 3058 m and 3582 m) in southwestern China. Two dominant tree species with contrasting leaf traits (coniferous vs. broadleaf) were used for field incubation at each site. Litterbags with two mesh sizes (3 vs. 0.04 mm) were used to permit and exclude the presence of soil fauna. The changes in elevation caused corresponding shifts in temperature and precipitation but did not affect the abundance and diversity of soil fauna communities. Soil fauna increased annual decomposition rates (k) by 14.5–28.7% across all litter types. Our structural equation models indicated that increasing temperature reduced while increasing moisture increased soil fauna effects on decomposition. Moreover, temperature and moisture modulated the contribution of soil fauna to litter decomposition via different mechanisms: (1) the reduced soil fauna contribution was driven by the increased temperature through increasing the litter C/N and fauna density (possibly because higher densities were associated with smaller organisms) and (2) the increased soil fauna effects were driven by increased moisture that increased the diversity of soil fauna. These results demonstrate that the effects of soil fauna are sensitive to changes in climate and litter quality across elevation gradients, and environment factors (i.e., temperature and moisture) may mediate the contribution of soil fauna to litter decomposition in opposite directions.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870602, 31700542 31570601 and 31500509), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0503906), the Special Fund for Key Program of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province (2018SZDZX0030), the Program of Sichuan Excellent Youth Sci-Tech Foundation (2020JDJQ0052) and the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M673278).

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Author notes

  1. Bo Tan, Rui Yin and Jian Zhang conceived and designed the study with advice by Zhenfeng Xu and Changhui Peng. Yang Liu, Shuqin He, Li Zhang, Han Li and Lixia Wang performed research. Sining Liu and Chengming You analyzed data. Bo Tan led the writing of the first draft. Rui Yin, Zhenfeng Xu and Changhui Peng gave insightful suggestions for the improvement in the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Forestry, College of Forestry, Forestry Ecological Engineering in Upper Reaches of Yangtze River Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, No. 211, Huimin Road, Wenjiang District, Chengdu, 611130, People’s Republic of China

    Bo Tan, Jian Zhang, Zhenfeng Xu, Yang Liu, Shuqin He, Li Zhang, Han Li, Lixia Wang, Sining Liu & Chengming You

  2. Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 4, 06110, Halle, Saale, Germany

    Rui Yin

  3. Department of Biological Science, Institute of Environment Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Changhui Peng

  4. Center for Ecological Forecasting and Global Change, College of Forestry, Northwest Agriculture & Forest University, Yangling, China

    Changhui Peng

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  1. Bo Tan
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Correspondence to Bo Tan.

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Tan, B., Yin, R., Zhang, J. et al. Temperature and Moisture Modulate the Contribution of Soil Fauna to Litter Decomposition via Different Pathways. Ecosystems 24, 1142–1156 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00573-w

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