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Decomposition of Senesced Leaf Litter is Faster in Tall Compared to Low Birch Shrub Tundra

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Abstract

Many Low Arctic tundra regions are currently undergoing a vegetation shift towards increasing growth and groundcover of tall deciduous shrubs due to recent climate warming. Vegetation change directly affects ecosystem carbon balance, but it can also affect soil biogeochemical cycling through physical and biological feedback mechanisms. Recent studies indicate that enhanced snow accumulation around relatively tall shrubs has negligible physical effect on litter decomposition rates. However, these investigations were no more than 3 years, and therefore may be insufficient to detect differences in inherently slow biogeochemical processes. Here, we report a 5-year study near Daring Lake, Canada, comparing Betula neoalaskana foliar litter decay rates within unmanipulated and snowfenced low-stature birch (height: ~ 0.3 m) plots to test the physical effect of experimentally deepened snow, and within tall birch (height: ~ 0.8 m) plots to test the combined physical and biological effects, that is, deepened snow plus strong birch dominance. Having corrected for carbon gain by the colonizing decomposers, actual litter carbon loss increased by approximately 25% in the tall birch relative to both low birch sites. Decay of lignin-like acid unhydrolizable litter residues also accelerated in the tall birch site, and a similar but lower magnitude response in the snowfenced low birch site indicated that physical effects of deepened snow were at least partially responsible. In contrast, deepened snow alone did not affect litter carbon loss. Our findings suggest that a combination of greater litter inputs, altered soil microbial community, enhanced soil nutrient pools, and warmer winter soils together promote relatively fast decomposition of recalcitrant litter carbon in tall birch shrub environments.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are thankful for lab assistance from Yvette Chirinian, Olivia RoDee, and Samantha Miller. We also thank Mike Treberg and Robbie Hember for constructing the snowfences, and Karin Clark and Steve and Louise Matthews for logistical support at the Daring Lake TERS. Many helpful comments from two anonymous reviewers greatly improved the manuscript. This work was financed by NSERC and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Government of the Northwest Territories. C.T.C. was financed by an Ontario Trillium scholarship from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. M.C.M. and J.D.’s participation was funded by NSF Grants DEB-0516041 and OPP-6767545.

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    1. Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

      Casper T. Christiansen & Paul Grogan

    2. Uni Research Climate, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, 5007, Bergen, Norway

      Casper T. Christiansen

    3. Center for Ecosystem Science and Society and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011, USA

      Michelle C. Mack

    4. Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA

      Jennie DeMarco

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    1. Casper T. Christiansen
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    Correspondence to Casper T. Christiansen.

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    Author Contributions CTC and PG conceived the scientific objectives, and CTC analyzed the data and wrote the paper with contributions from all co-authors. PG established the experimental plots, and MCM and JD supplied the litter material. PG and CTC collected all field data, while CTC collected all lab data, except for fiber forage analysis (MCM).

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    Christiansen, C.T., Mack, M.C., DeMarco, J. et al. Decomposition of Senesced Leaf Litter is Faster in Tall Compared to Low Birch Shrub Tundra. Ecosystems 21, 1564–1579 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0240-6

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