Importance of overstorey attributes for understorey litter production and nutrient cycling in European forests.

Forest Ecosystems
Dries LanduytKris Verheyen

Abstract

In contrast with the negligible contribution of the forest understorey to the total aboveground phytobiomass of a forest, its share in annual litter production and nutrient cycling may be more important. Whether and how this functional role of the understorey differs across forest types and depends upon overstorey characteristics remains to be investigated. We sampled 209 plots of the FunDivEUROPE Exploratory Platform, a network of study plots covering local gradients of tree diversity spread over six contrasting forest types in Europe. To estimate the relative contribution of the understorey to carbon and nutrient cycling, we sampled non-lignified aboveground understorey biomass and overstorey leaf litterfall in all plots. Understorey samples were analysed for C, N and P concentrations, overstorey leaf litterfall for C and N concentrations. We additionally quantified a set of overstorey attributes, including species richness, proportion of evergreen species, light availability (representing crown density) and litter quality, and investigated whether they drive the understorey's contribution to carbon and nutrient cycling. Overstorey litter production and nutrient stocks in litterfall clearly exceeded the contribution of the un...Continue Reading

References

Feb 8, 2006·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Emma J Sayer
Jul 14, 2019·Global Change Biology·Dries LanduytKris Verheyen

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Software Mentioned

Hemiview
FunDivEUROPE Exploratory Platform
R package MuMIn

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