Hensgens, Geert and Laudon, Hjalmar and Peichl, Matthias and Gil, Itziar Aguinaga and Zhou, Quan and Berggren, Martin
(2020).
The role of the understory in litter DOC and nutrient leaching in boreal forests.
Biogeochemistry. 149
, 87-103
[Journal article]
![]() |
PDF
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. 1MB |
Abstract
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) derived from plant litter plays an important role in the ecosystem carbon balance and soil biogeochemistry. However, in boreal coniferous forests no integrated understanding exists of how understory vegetation contributes to litter leaching of DOC, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) with different bioavailability at the forest stand level. We characterized water extractable leachates from fresh and decayed litter of dominant canopy and understory sources in a boreal coniferous forest, in order to explore the contribution of understory vegetation as a source of both total and bioavailable forms of DOC, N and P. Recently produced litter from deciduous species (including Vaccinium myrtillus) yielded the highest amounts of DOC. However, this leaching potential decreased exponentially with mass loss through litter decay. The DOC lability generally showed little interspecific variation, although wood derived DOC was more recalcitrant. Lability decreased progressively with litter aging. Water extractable nutrients increased proportionally with DOC, and roughly a quarter (N) or half (P) had directly bioavailable inorganic forms. Scaled to annual litterfall at the forest stand, understory vegetation contributed 80% of the water extractable DOC and nutrients from fresh litter, with > 60% coming from Vaccinium myrtillus alone. However, as litter decomposes, the data suggest a lower leaching potential is maintained with a larger contribution from needle, wood and moss litter. Our study shows that understory vegetation, especially V. myrtillus, is a key driver of litter DOC and nutrient leaching in boreal coniferous forests.
Authors/Creators: | Hensgens, Geert and Laudon, Hjalmar and Peichl, Matthias and Gil, Itziar Aguinaga and Zhou, Quan and Berggren, Martin | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title: | The role of the understory in litter DOC and nutrient leaching in boreal forests | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 149 | ||||||
Page range: | 87-103 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 17 | ||||||
Publisher: | Springer Nature | ||||||
ISSN: | 0168-2563 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Journal article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Forest Science | ||||||
Keywords: | Boreal forest, Dissolved organic carbon, Fennoscandia, Leaching, Litter, V. myrtillus | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-105606 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-105606 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
| ||||||
ID Code: | 17085 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (S) > Dept. of Forest Ecology and Management | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 09 Jun 2020 06:27 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:22 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page