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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2018, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (2): 474-482.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.201802.002

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The relative contributions of plant quality, simulated rising temperature, and habitat to litter decomposition.

WANG Hang1,2, YAN Peng-fei1, ZHAN Peng-fei1, ZHANG Xiao-ning1, LIU Zhen-ya1, GUO Yu-jing1, XIAO De-rong1*   

  1. 1National Plateau Wetlands Research Center/Wetlands College, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China;
    2Institute of Environmental Science, College of Environment and Resources, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • Received:2017-06-26 Online:2018-02-18 Published:2018-02-18
  • Contact: E-mail: 362821519@qq.com
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31500409, 31370497) and the Yunnan Innovative Research Team of Plateau Wetland Science (2012HC007).

Abstract: With litter bag methods, we examined mass loss rates and different chemical fractions of litters from two wetland plant species, Zizania caduciflora and Hippuris vulgaris. Those two species examined here varied significantly in their initial litter chemical traits. Experiment was performed under simulated rising temperature (1.5-2.0 ℃), and under three different habitats (air, air-water interface and water-soil interface). The results showed that, during one-year decomposition period, the mass resi-dual rates exhibited distinct seasonal dynamics, and there were strong interactive effects between seasonal dynamics and environmental factors. Different factors contributed differently for the variation of litter decomposition, 28.8% of which being explained by litter quality, 6.3% of which being explained by rising temperature, and 34.9% being explained by habitat. Along with the decomposition, the contents of different chemical fractions (easy or hard to decompose) varied greatly. Among them, nitrogen contents in H. vulgaris decreased by 53.1%, while the lignin contents increased by 45.4%. Overall, habitat was the most important factor driving litter decomposition, the second was litter quality, and rising temperature had minor effect.