Abstract
Litter decomposition in the soil is an important stage of the nutrient cycling process that interferes with functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Soil fertility and litter nutritional quality are fundamental factors that affect decomposition efficiency of plant residues. We evaluated decomposition in two areas of 'cerrado sensu stricto', each with a type of Neosol - limestone (eutrophic) and sandstone (dystrophic). In a rural area located in the municipality of Ituiutaba (MG, Brazil), 10 plots were randomly selected to install litter bags with 10 g of mixture of dry leaves that were used to estimate rate and time of leaf-litter decomposition from October/2015 to January/2016. Decomposition rate in the limestone cerrado was significantly higher than in the sandstone cerrado. This difference mustn't be explained by the edaphic texture between areas, since it was similar between them. But may be explained through aluminum absence and higher soil fertility in the limestone cerrado, especially phosphorus that is highly limiting in dystrophic cerrados like the sandstone cerrados, in which decay of decomposing leaf-litter was directly proportional to the levels of phosphorus. Limestone presence reduces aluminum toxicity and circumvent phosphorus limitation in the cerrado, favoring decomposition. Such influence is probably an important feature for limestone cerrados.
Highlights
The production, decomposition and release of nutrients from the litter deposited on the soil surface constitute different stages of the nutrient cycling process that interferes with the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems (Berg & McClaugherty 2014, Schilling et al 2016)
The efficiency of decomposition is estimated by litter decay rates that are sensitive to changing conditions in the environment (Peña-Peña & Irmler 2016), such as humidity and temperature (Wall et al 2008), levels of organic matter in the soil and carbon in the vegetation (Loss et al 2013) and, especially, soil fertility and litter nutritional quality (Makkonen et al 2012)
Once the presence of limestone in the soil enhances the pH and the cation exchange capacity in the edaphic solution (Vitti et al 2015), we evaluated whether the litter decay rates in the limestone are greater than in the expect that the nutrients will be more accessible to plant in “limestone cerrado” and, that leaf-litter decomposition will be higher than “sandstone cerrado”
Summary
The production, decomposition and release of nutrients from the litter deposited on the soil surface constitute different stages of the nutrient cycling process that interferes with the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems (Berg & McClaugherty 2014, Schilling et al 2016). This natural process protects the soil against erosion, alters the structural quality of the soil, increases the water retention capacity and restores considerable amounts of nutrients to vegetation (Nardoto et al 2006). These soils contain low cation and base exchange capacity (Solbrig 1996), presenting relative low fertility for plants and decompositors when compared to soils of ecosystems with more biomass productivity, as forests (Paiva et al 2015)
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