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The Relative Importance of Coarse-Scale Climate and Fine-Scale Nitrogen Availability Contrasts in Driving Home-Field Advantage Effects in Litter Decomposition

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Abstract

Understanding the relative importance of climates at coarse scales and nitrogen (N) availability at fine scales in driving litter decomposition is crucial for ecosystem functioning. In this study, we explored the relative importance of coarse-scale climatic contrast (China vs. France) and local soil fertility contrast related to N availability in determining ‘home-field advantage (HFA)’ effects. Four tree-species litters from four forest types with contrasting chemical properties from China and France were reciprocally transplanted in a litterbag decomposition experiment. The Decomposer Ability Regression Test showed highly significant HFA effects for the Chinese litter (Castanopsis eyrei), that is, the most recalcitrant litter with low P and N contents, and marginally significant HFA effects for the French litter (Carpinus betulus), that is, the most labile litter with high P and N contents. The climatic contrast was more important in determining HFA effects than the N availability contrast. Our findings highlight the importance of climate in determining the occurrence of HFA effects that likely can be attributed to differences in soil weathering intensity driving soil P legacy, an important coarse-scale component of soil fertility.

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Data Availability

Data are available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22339537.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31500356) and Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province of China (21JR7RA483). The authors thank Pengpeng Dou, Fang Wang and Mei Pang for the laboratory and field assistance and Laurent Augusto and Nicolas Fanin for fruitful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Xiangtai Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, 174th Shapingba Zhengjie Street, Shapingba District, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Dunmei Lin & Liang Zhao

  3. University of Bordeaux, UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, 33405, Talence, France

    Richard Michalet

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  1. Xiangtai Wang
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  2. Dunmei Lin
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Correspondence to Dunmei Lin.

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Author Contribution RM and DL designed the experiment; RM and XW collected the data in France, DL and LZ collected the data in China; XW analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; RM and DL contributed to revising the manuscript; all authors gave final approval for publication.

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Wang, X., Lin, D., Zhao, L. et al. The Relative Importance of Coarse-Scale Climate and Fine-Scale Nitrogen Availability Contrasts in Driving Home-Field Advantage Effects in Litter Decomposition. Ecosystems 26, 1456–1467 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00844-2

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