Search for: All records

Freshly senesced leaf litter was collected during autumn in New Hampshire at the Bartlett Experimental Forest, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, and Jeffers Brook as part of the Multiple Elementation Limitation in Northern Hardwood Ecosystems (MELNHE) study. Leaf litter was collected in October of 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021, and 2022 at peak litterfall (i.e., mid-October) during a rain-free period. These leaf-litter samples were analyzed for nutrient concentrations for use in resorption analyses. Besides adding 2021 and 2022 to the previous version of this data package, this version includes updated values for some samples from 2009 and 2010. Some were re-run to check unusual values, and 8 samples from 2010 for which fresh litter was not collected were estimated by analyzing litter samples collected in litter traps in the same plots in that year. These additions and corrections are indicated in the comments section of the data. These leaf litter samples correspond with green foliage samples collected in late July and early August of the same years: the green foliage EDI package can be found at the following citation: Zukswert, J.M., S.D. Hong, K.E. Gonzales, C.R. See, and R.D. Yanai. 2025. Multiple Element Limitation in Northern Hardwood Ecosystems (MELNHE): Foliar Chemistry 2008-2022 in Bartlett, Hubbard Brook, and Jeffers Brook ver 4. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/ef3696a753150d0a420fd9009f73b1e9 (Accessed 2025-01-13). These data were gathered as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES). The HBES is a collaborative effort at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 

We are conducting nutrient manipulations in three study sites in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire: Bartlett Experimental Forest, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, and Jeffers Brook. We monitored foliar chemistry in 13 of our stands (including HBCa and excluding C3) pre-treatment (2008-2010) and post-treatment (2014-2016 and 2021-22). In 2021-22, we also measured specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, carbon isotope composition, and stomatal density. We found that foliar N concentrations were higher with N addition and foliar P concentrations were higher with P addition. More interestingly, P addition reduced foliar N concentrations and N addition reduced foliar P concentrations. Some interactive effects were observed (i.e. NxP, Species x N, Species x P, Species x N x P). This dataset contains pre- and post- treatment foliar chemistry and trait data, and data from the analysis of quality control standard samples. Changes to pre-treatment data from version 1 include switching white birch trees #8272 and #8252 in stand JBM plots 2 and 3 (8272 is now in the nitrogen plot and 8252 is now in the control plot), correcting the species of tree #1628 in stand HBCa plot 1 (changed from red maple to sugar maple) and tree #8457 in stand HBO plot 3 (changed from sugar maple to red maple), and updating nutrient concentrations for C8 plot 3 sugar maple trees #28 and #30 to include averages of subsamples re-run in 2022. Tree tags were also updated to the tag ID present during the 2023 tree inventory. Additional detail on the MELNHE project, including a datatable of site descriptions and a pdf file with the project description and diagram of plot configuration can be found in this data package: https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?scope=knb-lter-hbr&identifier=344 These data were gathered as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES). The HBES is a collaborative effort at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 

Summary Coarse roots represent a globally important belowground carbon pool, but the factors controlling coarse root decomposition rates remain poorly understood relative to other plant biomass components. We compiled the most comprehensive dataset of coarse root decomposition data including 148 observations from 60 woody species, and linked coarse root decomposition rates to plant traits, phylogeny and climate to address questions of the dominant controls on coarse root decomposition.We found that decomposition rates increased with mean annual temperature, root nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. Coarse root decomposition was slower for ectomycorrhizal than arbuscular mycorrhizal associated species, and angiosperm species decomposed faster than gymnosperms. Coarse root decomposition rates and calcium concentrations showed a strong phylogenetic signal.Our findings suggest that categorical traits like mycorrhizal association and phylogenetic group, in conjunction with root quality and climate, collectively serve as the optimal predictors of coarse root decomposition rates.Our findings propose a paradigm of the dominant controls on coarse decomposition, with mycorrhizal association and phylogeny acting as critical roles on coarse root decomposition, necessitating their explicit consideration in Earth‐system models and ultimately improving confidence in projected carbon cycle–climate feedbacks. 

Abstract Fungal necromass is increasingly recognized as a key component of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling. However, how C and N loss from fungal necromass during decomposition is impacted by global change factors such as anthropogenic N addition and changes to soil C supply (e.g. via changing root exudation and rhizosphere priming) remains unclear and understudied relative to plant tissues.To address these gaps, we conducted a year‐long decomposition experiment with four species of fungal necromass incubated across four forested sites in plots that had received inorganic N and/or labile C fertilization for two decades in Minnesota, USA.We found that necromass chemistry was the primary driver of C and N loss from fungal necromass as well as the response to fertilization. Specifically, N addition suppressed late‐stage decomposition, but this effect was weaker in melanin‐rich necromass, contrary to the hypothesis based on plant litter dynamics that N addition should suppress the decomposition of more complex organic molecules. Labile C addition had no effect on either the early or late stages of necromass decomposition.Nitrogen release from necromass also varied among species, with N‐poor necromass having lower N release after controlling for differences in mass loss via regression. The relatively minor effects of N fertilization on the proportion of initial necromass N released suggest that N demand by decomposers is the primary control on N loss during fungal necromass decomposition.Synthesis. Together, our results stress the importance of the afterlife effects of fungal chemical composition to forest soil C and N cycles. Further, they demonstrate that C and N release from this critical pool can be reduced by ongoing anthropogenic N addition. 

The permafrost region has accumulated organic carbon in cold and waterlogged soils over thousands of years and now contains three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Global warming is degrading permafrost with the potential to accelerate climate change as increased microbial decomposition releases soil carbon as greenhouse gases. A 19-year time series of soil and ecosystem respiration radiocarbon from Alaska provides long-term insight into changing permafrost soil carbon dynamics in a warmer world. Nine per cent of ecosystem respiration and 23% of soil respiration observations had radiocarbon values more than 50‰ lower than the atmospheric value. Furthermore, the overall trend of ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon values through time decreased more than atmospheric radiocarbon values did, indicating that old carbon degradation was enhanced. Boosted regression tree analyses showed that temperature and moisture environmental variables had the largest relative influence on lower radiocarbon values. This suggested that old carbon degradation was controlled by warming/permafrost thaw and soil drying together, as waterlogged soil conditions could protect soil carbon from microbial decomposition even when thawed. Overall, changing conditions increasingly favoured the release of old carbon, which is a definitive fingerprint of an accelerating feedback to climate change as a consequence of warming and permafrost destabilization. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Radiocarbon in the Anthropocene’. 

This dataset describes litterfall mass collected in the Multiple Element Limitation in Northern Hardwood Ecosystems (MELNHE) study in New Hampshire from fall 2009 through summer 2022. Litter was collected three times per year: fall (late October or early November), spring (June), and summer (August). Fall litter was sorted by species in a subset of stands. This data package also includes the R code used to impute missing data for analysis, a manually edited data file used in the R code flow, and a file matching the labels for litterfall collectors from the original (pre Fall 2011) and current (Fall 2011 and onwards) labeling systems. All collectors have the most current label if known for all years of data. Additional detail on MELNHE, including a table of stand descriptions, project description, and a diagram of plot configuration can be found in this data package: Yanai, R.D., M. Fisk, and T.J. Fahey. 2024. Multiple Element Limitation in Northern Hardwood Ecosystems (MELNHE): Project description, plot characteristics and design ver 2. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/6cc8a39d052834c030650fb29937bf4f (Accessed 2024-10-17). Litterfall chemistry data for a subset of these samples can be found in the following data package: Fisk, M.C., R.D. Yanai, S.D. Hong, C.R. See, and S. Goswami. 2022. Litter chemistry and masses for the MELNHE NxP fertilization experiment ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/8b2975a3a02cbcfb1b0a12ac954576d4 (Accessed 2024-06-09). These data were gathered as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES). The HBES is a collaborative effort at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 

The below-ground growing season often extends beyond the above-ground growing season in tundra ecosystems. However, we do not yet know where and when this occurs and whether these phenological asynchronies are driven by variation in local vegetation communities or by spatial variation in microclimate. Here, we combined above- and below-ground plant phenology metrics to compare the relative timings and magnitudes of leaf and root growth and senescence across microclimates and plant communities at five sites across the tundra biome. We observed asynchronous growth between above-ground and below-ground plant tissue, with the below-ground season extending up to 74% beyond the onset of above-ground leaf senescence. Plant community type, rather than microclimate, was a key factor controlling the timing, productivity and growth rates of roots, with graminoid roots exhibiting a distinct ‘pulse’ of growth later into the growing season than shrub roots. Our findings indicate the potential of vegetation change to influence below-ground carbon storage as roots remain active in unfrozen soils for longer as the climate warms. Taken together, increased root growth in soils that remain thawed later into the growing season, in combination with ongoing tundra vegetation change including increased shrubs and graminoids, can act together to alter below-ground productivity and carbon cycling in the tundra biome. 

ABSTRACT Microbial necromass contributes significantly to both soil carbon (C) persistence and ecosystem nitrogen (N) availability, but quantitative estimates of C and N movement from necromass into soils and decomposer communities are lacking. Additionally, while melanin is known to slow fungal necromass decomposition, how it influences microbial C and N acquisition as well as elemental release into soils remains unclear. Here, we tracked decomposition of isotopically labeled low and high melanin fungal necromass and measured¹³C and¹⁵N accumulation in surrounding soils and microbial communities over 77 d in a temperate forest in Minnesota, USA. Mass loss was significantly higher from low melanin necromass, corresponding with greater¹³C and¹⁵N soil inputs. A taxonomically and functionally diverse array of bacteria and fungi was enriched in¹³C and/or¹⁵N at all sampling points, with enrichment being consistently higher on low melanin necromass and earlier in decomposition. Similar patterns of preferential C and N enrichment of many bacterial and fungal genera early in decomposition suggest that both microbial groups co-contribute to the rapid assimilation of resource-rich soil organic matter inputs. While overall richness of taxa enriched in C was higher than in N for both bacteria and fungi, there was a significant positive relationship between C and N in co-enriched taxa. Collectively, our results demonstrate that melanization acts as a key ecological trait mediating not only fungal necromass decomposition rate but also necromass C and N release and that both elements are rapidly co-utilized by diverse bacterial and fungal decomposers in natural settings. IMPORTANCERecent studies indicate that microbial dead cells, particularly those of fungi, play an important role in long-term carbon persistence in soils. Despite this growing recognition, how the resources within dead fungal cells (also known as fungal necromass) move into decomposer communities and soils are poorly quantified, particularly in studies based in natural environments. In this study, we found that the contribution of fungal necromass to soil carbon and nitrogen availability was slowed by the amount of melanin present in fungal cell walls. Further, despite the overall rapid acquisition of carbon and nitrogen from necromass by a diverse range of both bacteria and fungi, melanization also slowed microbial uptake of both elements. Collectively, our results indicate that melanization acts as a key ecological trait mediating not only fungal necromass decomposition rate, but also necromass carbon and nitrogen release into soil as well as microbial resource acquisition. 

Freshly senesced leaf litter was collected during autumn in New Hampshire at the Bartlett Experimental Forest, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, and Jeffers Brook as part of the Multiple Elementation Limitation in Northern Hardwood Ecosystems (MELNHE) study. Leaf litter was collected in October of 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, and 2016 at peak litterfall (i.e., mid-October) during a rain-free period. These leaf-litter samples were analyzed for nutrient concentrations for use in resorption analyses. These leaf litter samples correspond with green foliage samples collected in late July and early August of the same years: the green foliage EDI package can be found at the following citation: Hong, S.D., K.E. Gonzales, C.R. See, and R.D. Yanai. 2021. MELNHE: Foliar Chemistry 2008-2016 in Bartlett, Hubbard Brook, and Jeffers Brook (12 stands) ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/b23deb8e1ccf1c1413382bf911c6be19 These data were gathered as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES). The HBES is a collaborative effort at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.