Abstract
The decomposition of wetland plant litter is pivotal in the functioning of wetland ecosystems in terms of organic matter mineralization progress and nutrient cycling. Aiming to investigate the effects of the droppings of wintering herbivorous waterbirds on the decomposition of Carex cinerascens Kükenth litter a newly designated Ramsar Site, decomposition patterns of three types of samples were characterized and compared by waterbird dropping addition and litterbag in situ experiment. The three types of samples are OCL (only C. cinerascens litter), OWD (only waterbird droppings) and CMD (C. cinerascens litter mixed with waterbird droppings), respectively. A total of 105 decomposition bags were placed and the experiment lasted 150 days. The results showed that the average decay rate of C. cinerascens cellulose increased by approximately 32.12% by the addition of bird droppings, while the C. cinerascens lignin decay rate increased by approximately 83.05%. And the release of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous of C. cinerascens increased by approximately 18.3%, 61.09%, and 66.71%, respectively. We concluded that the addition of waterbird droppings significantly accelerated the decomposition of C. cinerascens litter and the release of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. We have a preliminary deduction that waterbird droppings (1) altered the original stoichiometric ratio of the litter, (2) increased the available nutrient content, (3) increased the colonization ability of the microorganisms, and (4) stimulated the production of a series of extracellular degradation enzymes. This study provides a thinking that the important role of waterbirds should be given full attention in wetland restoration planning and management.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Jiangxi Nanji Wetland National Nature Reserve for cooperation and support with the field work and sampling conducted in this study. We also thank Dr. Songbin Jin, Dr. Zhichun Lan and Dr. Ruichang Shen from the Institute of Watershed Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, for their help with the laboratory experiment. We appreciate Dr. Huan Zhang, Mr. Shenhao Wu and Mr. Xin Wang from Nanchang University, and Miss Didi Rao from Jiangxi Normal University for their help experiment setting up, sampling and mapping. We also thank Dr. Jiang Lei from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for valuable suggestions regarding this paper. The authors also acknowledge the contributions of the anonymous reviewers.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Numbers 41971133, 41701212, and 41471088], and the provincial cooperation project—Research and Development of Aquatic Ecological Comprehensive Model of Poyang Lake Wetland [JXPJB20160101].
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Zhang, Q., Zhang, G., Yu, X. et al. How do droppings of wintering waterbird accelerate decomposition of Carex cinerascens Kükenth litter in seasonal floodplain Ramsar Site?. Wetlands Ecol Manage 29, 581–597 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-021-09804-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-021-09804-w