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...

A combination of theory and experiments predicts that increasing soil nutrients will modify herbivore microbial impacts on ecosystem carbon cycling. However, few studies herbivores have measured both fluxes pools. Even more rare are manipulating microbes look at cycling responses. We added to a long-term, experiment foliar fungi, mammalian arthropods in low fertility grassland. gross primary pr...

Trees alter their use and allocation of nutrients in response to drought, and changes in soil nutrient cycling and trace gas flux (N2 O and CH4 ) are observed when experimental drought is imposed on forests. In extreme droughts, trees are increasingly susceptible to attack by pests and pathogens, which can lead to major changes in nutrient flux to the soil. Extreme droughts often lead to more c...

Climate change in the (Sub)Arctic is expected to be more extreme and rapid compared to other regions on Earth. At these northern latitudes, cryptogams (bryophytes and lichens) are the dominant vegetation component both in terms of abundance and biodiversity, fulfilling important ecosystem functions such as regulation of hydrology, carbon balance, nitrogen fixation and preservation of permafrost...

In a soil conditions like limestone mined spoils which has low soil nutrients level with poor nutrient cycling capacity; application of selected microbes as inoculants may be helpful in the establishment of plants in nutrient poor mined spoils. Pongamia pinnata grown on limestone mined over burden dump were supplemented with different microbial and inorganic fertilizer. Plants inoculated with m...

we studied litterfall dynamic of tree plantations in dez river floodplain, at 14 to 15 years old. the plantations consist of populus euphratica oliv., eucalyptus camaldulensis dehnh., e. microtheca f. muell, acacia farnesiana (l.) willd., a. salicina lindl., a. saligna (labill.) h. wendl., a. stenophylla benth. and dalbergia sissoo roxb. litterfall was different between the tree species, and le...

(1) While it is well-known that trees release carbon (C) to soils as root exudates, the factors that control the magnitude and biogeochemical impacts of this flux are poorly understood. (2) We quantified root exudation and microbially-mediated nutrient fluxes in the rhizosphere for four ~80 year-old tree species in a deciduous hardwood forest, Indiana, USA. We hypothesized that trees that exude...

Most aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are experiencing increased nutrient availability, which is affecting their structure and function. By altering community composition and productivity of consumers, enrichment can indirectly cause changes in the pathways and magnitude of material flows in food webs. These changes, in turn, have major consequences for material storage and cycling in the eco...

Understanding the context dependence of ecosystem responses to global changes requires the development of new conceptual frameworks. Here we propose a framework for considering how tree species and their mycorrhizal associates differentially couple carbon (C) and nutrient cycles in temperate forests. Given that tree species predominantly associate with a single type of mycorrhizal fungi (arbusc...

Nothofagus pumilio (lenga) forests form monocultures from sea level to timberline in Tierra de Fuego, Argentina. Past studies suggested that the life form change from erect forest to krummholz had advantages to forest function. Aboveground net primary productivity (NPP) and organic matter production per unit leaf area and growing season day were higher in krummholz than in adjacent short erect ...