Fungal communities influence decomposition rates of plant litter from two dominant tree species

Johan Asplund*, Håvard Kauserud, Stef Bokhorst, Marit H. Lie, Mikael Ohlson, Line Nybakken

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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    Abstract

    The home-field advantage hypothesis (HFA) predicts that plant litter decomposes faster than expected underneath the plant from which it originates. We tested this hypothesis in a decomposition experiment where litters were incubated reciprocally in neighbouring European beech and Norway spruce forests. We analysed fungal communities in the litter through DNA metabarcoding and evaluated the effect of mesofauna (mites and springtails) on litter mass loss by using different litter-bag mesh sizes. Accounting for general differences in decomposition between litter and forest types, we found a significant home field advantage of 24%. Litter decomposed faster in the beech forest but spruce litter decomposed faster than beech litter. Fungal communities showed a clear dependency on both forest and litter type. Mesofauna did not affect litter mass loss rates or microbial species composition.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-8
    Number of pages8
    JournalFungal Ecology
    Volume32
    Early online date28 Nov 2017
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Apr 2018

    Funding

    We thank Tone Birkemoe for help setting-up the Tullgren apparatus. We acknowledge Courtney Nadeau and Marie Davey for DNA and bioinformatics analyses. Permit to conduct research in Brånakollane Nature Reserve was given by the County Governor of Vestfold (2013/3878). We thank Kjell Lie, on behalf of the forest owner, for kind help with access to the forest area. Two anonymous reviewers and Björn Lindahl provided insightful comments that helped to improve this manuscript. This study was funded by the Research Council of Norway (grant number 225018 ). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

    FundersFunder number
    Norges forskningsråd225018

      Keywords

      • Boreal and temperate forests
      • Fungi
      • Illumina DNA sequencing
      • Litter decomposition
      • Mesofauna
      • Plant–soil (below-ground) interactions

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