Authors: Amalia Virzo De Santo Anna De Marco Angelo Fierro Björn Berg Flora A Rutigliano
Publish Date: 2008/12/03
Volume: 318, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 217-228
Abstract
We studied latestages decomposition of four types of coniferous needle and three types of deciduous leaf litter at two sites one nutrientpoor boreal and one nutrientrich temperate The late stage was identified by that reached by litters at the onset of net loss of lignin mass ie at about 1 year after the incubation when the highest amount of lignin had been detected the study extended over the following 2 year period Decomposition rates were significantly lower at the boreal than at the temperate site and did not differ between needle litter and leaf litter In the boreal forest 1 massloss was positively correlated with N and Mn release 2 Mn concentration at the start of the late stage was positively correlated with lignin decay 3 Ca concentration was negatively correlated to litter mass loss and lignin decay In the temperate forest neither lignin N Mn and Ca concentration at the start of the late stage nor their dynamics were related to litter decomposition rates and lignin decay In leaf litter massloss and lignin decay were positively correlated with N and Ca release and with Ca concentration In needle litter massloss was positively correlated to Mn release and N concentration negatively with lignin decay We concluded that Ca N and Mn have different roles in controlling lignin decay depending on type of litter and site conditionsThis work was carried out while Björn Berg was a guest scientist at the Department of Structural and Functional Biology University of Naples Federico II financed by the program “Incentivazione alla mobilità di studiosi stranieri e italiani residenti all’estero” The research was funded by Ministero dell’Università e della RicercaItaly Dr Paola Vittozzi is gratefully acknowledged for lignin analyses
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