Higher soil fauna abundance accelerates litter carbon release across an alpine forest-tundra ecotone.

ABSTRACT: Upward shifts of alpine treelines and shrub expansion are occurring under climate change, and Abies faxoniana (AF) and Rhododendron lapponicum (RL) may become distributed at higher altitudes. How do abiotic factors and litter quality modulate the effects of soil fauna on carbon release in this context? A field decomposition experiment involving the foliar litter of AF and RL was conducted along an elevation gradient encompassing coniferous forest, alpine shrubland and alpine meadow by using litterbags with different mesh sizes (3 and 0.04 mm). The objective was to determine the influences of soil fauna, litter quality and abiotic factors on species-specific carbon release and their contributions during litter decomposition. Our findings demonstrated that higher soil fauna abundance and div

SUBMITTER: Liu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6646657 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature