Functional traits drive the contribution of solar radiation to leaf litter decomposition among multiple arid-zone species.

ABSTRACT: In arid zones, strong solar radiation has important consequences for ecosystem processes. To better understand carbon and nutrient dynamics, it is important to know the contribution of solar radiation to leaf litter decomposition of different arid-zone species. Here we investigated: (1) whether such contribution varies among plant species at given irradiance regime, (2) whether interspecific variation in such contribution correlates with interspecific variation in the decomposition rate under shade; and (3) whether this correlation can be explained by leaf traits. We conducted a factorial experiment to determine the effects of solar radiation and environmental moisture for the mass loss and the decomposition constant k-values of 13 species litters collected in Northern China. The contribut

SUBMITTER: Pan X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4539537 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature