A global experiment suggests climate warming will not accelerate litter decomposition in streams but might reduce carbon sequestration

Autor: Charles M'Erimba, Ricardo J. Albariño, Lavenia Ratnarajah, Verónica Ferreira, Jude M. Mathooko, Marcelo S. Moretti, Russell G. Death, Manuel A. S. Graça, Mark O. Gessner, Andreas Bruder, Alonso Ramírez, Catherine M. Yule, Verónica Díaz Villanueva, Derek C. West, Catherine Mathuriau, Leonardo Buria, José Castela, Alexander S. Flecker, Muthukumarasamy Arunachalam, David Dudgeon, Ricardo Figueroa, Luz Boyero, Judy N. Davies, Richard G. Pearson, Marcos Callisto, Eric Chauvet, Markus Schindler, Sylvain Lamothe, José F. Gonçalves, Aydeé Cornejo, Leon A. Barmuta, Julie E. Helson, Andrew J. Boulton, Tomoya Iwata, Tajang Jinggut
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: Ecology Letters. 14:289-294
ISSN: 1461-023X
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01578.x
Popis: The decomposition of plant litter is one of the most important ecosystem processes in the biosphere and is particularly sensitive to climate warming. Aquatic ecosystems are well suited to studying warming effects on decomposition because the otherwise confounding influence of moisture is constant. By using a latitudinal temperature gradient in an unprecedented global experiment in streams, we found that climate warming will likely hasten microbial litter decomposition and produce an equivalent decline in detritivore-mediated decomposition rates. As a result, overall decomposition rates should remain unchanged. Nevertheless, the process would be profoundly altered, because the shift in importance from detritivores to microbes in warm climates would likely increase CO2 production and decrease the generation and sequestration of recalcitrant organic particles. In view of recent estimates showing that inland waters are a significant component of the global carbon cycle, this implies consequences for global biogeochemistry and a possible positive climate feedback.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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