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      Changes in seasonal precipitation distribution but not annual amount affect litter decomposition in a secondary tropical forest

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          Abstract

          In the tropics of South China, climate change induced more rainfall events in the wet season in the last decades. Moreover, there will be more frequently spring drought in the future. However, knowledge on how litter decomposition rate would respond to these seasonal precipitation changes is still limited. In the present study, we conducted a precipitation manipulation experiment in a tropical forest. First, we applied a 60% rainfall exclusion in April and May to defer the onset of wet season and added the same amount of water in October and November to mimic a deferred wet season (DW); second, we increased as much as 25% mean annual precipitation into plots in July and August to simulate a wetter wet season (WW). Five single‐species litters, with their carbon to nitrogen ratio ranged from 27 to 49, and a mixed litter were used to explore how the precipitation change treatments would affect litter decomposition rate. The interaction between precipitation changes and litter species was not significant. The DW treatment marginally accelerated litter decomposition across six litter types. Detailed analysis showed that DW increased litter decomposition rate in the periods of January to March and October to December, when soil moisture was increased by the water addition in the dry season. In contrast, WW did not significantly affect litter decomposition rate, which was consistent with the unchanged soil moisture pattern. In conclusion, the study indicated that regardless of litter types or litter quality, the projected deferred wet season would increase litter decomposition rate, whereas the wetter wet season would not affect litter decomposition rate in the tropical forests. This study improves our knowledge of how tropical forest carbon cycling in response to precipitation change.

          Abstract

          Tropical forest litter decomposition was affected by seasonal precipitation changes but not the increased annual amount.

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          Most cited references58

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          Plant species traits are the predominant control on litter decomposition rates within biomes worldwide.

          Worldwide decomposition rates depend both on climate and the legacy of plant functional traits as litter quality. To quantify the degree to which functional differentiation among species affects their litter decomposition rates, we brought together leaf trait and litter mass loss data for 818 species from 66 decomposition experiments on six continents. We show that: (i) the magnitude of species-driven differences is much larger than previously thought and greater than climate-driven variation; (ii) the decomposability of a species' litter is consistently correlated with that species' ecological strategy within different ecosystems globally, representing a new connection between whole plant carbon strategy and biogeochemical cycling. This connection between plant strategies and decomposability is crucial for both understanding vegetation-soil feedbacks, and for improving forecasts of the global carbon cycle.
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            Climate, Leaf Litter Chemistry and Leaf Litter Decomposition in Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Triangular Relationship

            Rien Aerts (1997)
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              Biodiversity and Litter Decomposition in Terrestrial Ecosystems

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                lizan@scbg.ac.cn
                wangfm@scbg.ac.cn
                Journal
                Ecol Evol
                Ecol Evol
                10.1002/(ISSN)2045-7758
                ECE3
                Ecology and Evolution
                John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
                2045-7758
                10 September 2019
                October 2019
                : 9
                : 19 ( doiID: 10.1002/ece3.v9.19 )
                : 11344-11352
                Affiliations
                [ 1 ] Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
                [ 2 ] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
                [ 3 ] Xiaoliang Research Station for Tropical Coastal Ecosystems Chinese Academy of Sciences Maoming China
                [ 4 ] College of Forestry and Architecture South China Agricultural University Guangzhou China
                Author notes
                [*] [* ] Correspondence

                Faming Wang and Zhi'an Li, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China.

                Emails: wangfm@ 123456scbg.ac.cn ; lizan@ 123456scbg.ac.cn

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7543-6779
                Article
                ECE35635
                10.1002/ece3.5635
                6802026
                81ad306a-ea7b-44d0-b707-f89c541a2dac
                © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

                This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 13 November 2018
                : 25 July 2019
                : 13 August 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 3, Pages: 9, Words: 7262
                Funding
                Funded by: National Natural Science Foundation of China , open-funder-registry 10.13039/501100001809;
                Award ID: 31870463
                Award ID: 31700371
                Award ID: 31670621
                Award ID: 31670513
                Award ID: 41401279
                Funded by: Pearl River Nova Program of Guangzhou
                Award ID: 201710010140
                Funded by: Guangdong Natural Science Foundation , open-funder-registry 10.13039/501100003453;
                Award ID: 2017A030313143
                Categories
                Original Research
                Original Research
                Custom metadata
                2.0
                October 2019
                Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_JATSPMC version:5.7.0 mode:remove_FC converted:21.10.2019

                Evolutionary Biology
                c cycling,climate change,precipitation change,soil moisture,tropical forest
                Evolutionary Biology
                c cycling, climate change, precipitation change, soil moisture, tropical forest

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