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Article: Suspended Dead Wood Decomposes Slowly in the Tropics, with Microbial Decay Greater than Termite Decay

TitleSuspended Dead Wood Decomposes Slowly in the Tropics, with Microbial Decay Greater than Termite Decay
Authors
Keywordscarbon pool
coarse woody
debrisdecomposition
fallen dead wood
microbe
Issue Date2019
PublisherSpringer New York LLC. The Journal's web site is located at http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10021/
Citation
Ecosystems, 2019, v. 22 n. 6, p. 1176-1188 How to Cite?
AbstractCoarse woody debris (CWD) is an important pool of carbon in forest ecosystems and is present in all strata as fallen, standing or suspended CWD. However, there are relatively few decomposition studies of CWD in tropical forests compared with temperate forests, and research on suspended CWD in particular has largely not been attempted. Termites are important decomposers in tropical ecosystems yet their role relative to microbial decomposers and the importance of the vertical location of CWD has rarely been considered. For the first time, we examined the relative contribution of macro-invertebrates (predominantly termites) and microbes to the decay of suspended and ground-placed (fallen) CWD in lowland, tropical rainforest. We set up wood baits (Pinus radiata) with and without termite access, and measured wood mass loss after 1 year. Mass loss of ground-placed CWD assays was over four times greater than suspended CWD assays. Termite decomposition was vertically stratified with termites having a large relative contribution to the decomposition of ground-placed CWD and a negligible contribution to the decomposition of suspended CWD. In contrast, the effect of microbes on decomposition was low and not vertically stratified. Although our results support the findings of temperate studies in that decomposition of CWD is dependent on its physical location, we show that in tropical rainforests this is predominantly due to greater termite decomposition on the forest floor. Suspended CWD remains an important carbon sink due to slow microbial decay until it falls to the forest floor where it is more accessible to termites. © 2018, The Author(s).
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/274283
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 3.4
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 1.404
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorLaw, S-
dc.contributor.authorEggleton, P-
dc.contributor.authorGriffiths, HM-
dc.contributor.authorAshton, LA-
dc.contributor.authorParr, C-
dc.date.accessioned2019-08-18T14:58:42Z-
dc.date.available2019-08-18T14:58:42Z-
dc.date.issued2019-
dc.identifier.citationEcosystems, 2019, v. 22 n. 6, p. 1176-1188-
dc.identifier.issn1432-9840-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/274283-
dc.description.abstractCoarse woody debris (CWD) is an important pool of carbon in forest ecosystems and is present in all strata as fallen, standing or suspended CWD. However, there are relatively few decomposition studies of CWD in tropical forests compared with temperate forests, and research on suspended CWD in particular has largely not been attempted. Termites are important decomposers in tropical ecosystems yet their role relative to microbial decomposers and the importance of the vertical location of CWD has rarely been considered. For the first time, we examined the relative contribution of macro-invertebrates (predominantly termites) and microbes to the decay of suspended and ground-placed (fallen) CWD in lowland, tropical rainforest. We set up wood baits (Pinus radiata) with and without termite access, and measured wood mass loss after 1 year. Mass loss of ground-placed CWD assays was over four times greater than suspended CWD assays. Termite decomposition was vertically stratified with termites having a large relative contribution to the decomposition of ground-placed CWD and a negligible contribution to the decomposition of suspended CWD. In contrast, the effect of microbes on decomposition was low and not vertically stratified. Although our results support the findings of temperate studies in that decomposition of CWD is dependent on its physical location, we show that in tropical rainforests this is predominantly due to greater termite decomposition on the forest floor. Suspended CWD remains an important carbon sink due to slow microbial decay until it falls to the forest floor where it is more accessible to termites. © 2018, The Author(s).-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherSpringer New York LLC. The Journal's web site is located at http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10021/-
dc.relation.ispartofEcosystems-
dc.rightsThis is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in [insert journal title]. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/[insert DOI]-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjectcarbon pool-
dc.subjectcoarse woody-
dc.subjectdebrisdecomposition-
dc.subjectfallen dead wood-
dc.subjectmicrobe-
dc.titleSuspended Dead Wood Decomposes Slowly in the Tropics, with Microbial Decay Greater than Termite Decay-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.emailAshton, LA: lashton@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityAshton, LA=rp02353-
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_version-
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10021-018-0331-4-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85059572994-
dc.identifier.hkuros301771-
dc.identifier.volume22-
dc.identifier.issue6-
dc.identifier.spage1176-
dc.identifier.epage1188-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000486261700002-
dc.publisher.placeUnited States-
dc.identifier.issnl1432-9840-

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