In view of growing interest in understanding how biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning, we investigated effects of riparian plant diversity on litter decomposition in forest streams. Leaf litter from 10 deciduous tree species was collected during natural leaf fall at two locations (Massif Central in France and Carpathians in Romania) and exposed in the field in litter bags. There were 35 s...

Kandelia candel (L.) Druce is the dominant mangrove species in two nature reserves in Northern Taiwan. We characterized the nutrient quality of the leaf litter originating from K. candel and attempted to suggest the extent to which the observed decline of nutrient concentrations in senescing leaves could be attributed to the withdrawal of these nutrients into the main plant before abscission. O...

Many exotic species have little apparent impact on ecosystem processes, whereas others have dramatic consequences for human and ecosystem health. There is growing evidence that invasions foster eutrophication. We need to identify species that are harmful and systems that are vulnerable to anticipate these consequences. Species' traits may provide the necessary insights. We conducted a global me...

Increases in tree biomass may be an important sink for CO2 as the atmospheric concentration continues to increase. Tree growth in temperate forests is often limited by the availability of soil nutrients. To assess whether soil nutrient limitation will constrain forest productivity under high atmospheric CO2, we studied the changes in forest litter production and nutrient cycling in a maturing s...

Plant leaf litter generally decomposes faster as a group of different species than when individual species decompose alone, but underlying mechanisms of these diversity effects remain poorly understood. Because resource C : N : P stoichiometry (i.e. the ratios of these key elements) exhibits strong control on consumers, we supposed that stoichiometric dissimilarity of litter mixtures (i.e. the ...

Mass loss rates of three types of leaf litter were measured along an altitudinal gradient at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, Macon County, North Carolina. Litterbags containing air dried litter from Quercus prinus L., Liriodendron tulipifera L., and Rhododendron maximum L. were placed in five plots along the gradient and sampled monthly. Microarthropods were extracted and sorted, and litter ...

Aquatic hyphomycetes are a group of freshwater fungi that includes asexual stages of ascomycetes and basidiomycetes. Even though aquatic hyphomycetes are a phyllogenetically heterogeneous group, there are common characteristics to most species: (i) they are saprotrophs, using submerged leaves and wood as substrates and sources of carbon (Gulis et al. 2006b), (ii) they can obtain nutrients from ...

Global changes such as variations in plant net primary production are likely to drive shifts in leaf litterfall inputs to forest soils, but the effects of such changes on soil carbon (C) cycling and storage remain largely unknown, especially in C-rich tropical forest ecosystems. We initiated a leaf litterfall manipulation experiment in a tropical rain forest in Costa Rica to test the sensitivit...

One of the major concerns about global warming is the potential for an increase in decomposition and soil respiration rates, increasing CO2 emissions and creating a positive feedback between global warming and soil respiration. This is particularly important in ecosystems with large belowground biomass, such as grasslands where over 90% of the carbon is allocated belowground. A better understan...