TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparable early-stage decomposition but contrasting underlying drivers between surface and cave habitats along an elevational gradient
AU - Bodawatta, Kasun H.
AU - Ravn, Nynne
AU - Oromí, Pedro
AU - Esquivel, José Luis Martin
AU - Michelsen, Anders
AU - Poulsen, Michael
AU - Jønsson, Knud Andreas
AU - Reboleira, Ana Sofia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Decomposition is a major contributor to ecosystem respiration, determining the carbon emission and nutrient cycling rates. Our current understanding of decomposition dynamics and their underlying drivers has mainly focused on surface habitats but largely ignored in subterranean environments. Here we studied abiotic and microbial drivers of early-stage litter decomposition inside and outside caves along an elevational gradient in Tenerife. We found comparable decomposition rates (k) and litter stabilizing factors (S), with contrasting drivers and elevational variation. At the surface, we observed a mid-elevational trend in k, which tended to correlate with water availability, cooler temperatures, nutrient availability, and surface-specific bacterial taxa. In sharp contrast, caves showed no elevational impact nor influence of abiotic parameters and bacterial communities on k. Despite this, we found higher levels of S in caves, which were associated mainly with reduced water availability, lower temperatures and cave-specific bacterial taxa, indicating that conditions in caves are strongly linked with carbon storage. Our findings imply that our current perception of terrestrial habitat-based carbon cycling are underestimating the net carbon budget in areas with caves. Disentangling the role of the environment on decomposition in caves is key to fully characterize their roles in nutrient cycling and to understand how increasing anthropogenic pressures will affect fundamental processes in subterranean ecosystems.
AB - Decomposition is a major contributor to ecosystem respiration, determining the carbon emission and nutrient cycling rates. Our current understanding of decomposition dynamics and their underlying drivers has mainly focused on surface habitats but largely ignored in subterranean environments. Here we studied abiotic and microbial drivers of early-stage litter decomposition inside and outside caves along an elevational gradient in Tenerife. We found comparable decomposition rates (k) and litter stabilizing factors (S), with contrasting drivers and elevational variation. At the surface, we observed a mid-elevational trend in k, which tended to correlate with water availability, cooler temperatures, nutrient availability, and surface-specific bacterial taxa. In sharp contrast, caves showed no elevational impact nor influence of abiotic parameters and bacterial communities on k. Despite this, we found higher levels of S in caves, which were associated mainly with reduced water availability, lower temperatures and cave-specific bacterial taxa, indicating that conditions in caves are strongly linked with carbon storage. Our findings imply that our current perception of terrestrial habitat-based carbon cycling are underestimating the net carbon budget in areas with caves. Disentangling the role of the environment on decomposition in caves is key to fully characterize their roles in nutrient cycling and to understand how increasing anthropogenic pressures will affect fundamental processes in subterranean ecosystems.
KW - Canary Islands
KW - Decomposition
KW - Elevational gradient
KW - Microbiome
KW - Nutrient recycling
KW - Subterranean ecosystems
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110607
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110607
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85165494395
VL - 154
JO - Ecological Indicators
JF - Ecological Indicators
SN - 1470-160X
M1 - 110607
ER -