Late stage pine litter decomposition: Relationship to litter N, Mn, and acid unhydrolyzable residue (AUR) concentrations and climatic factors

摘要

The aim of this paper is to evaluate relationships between decomposition rates of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. contorta) needle litter in the late stage of decomposition (>30% accumulated mass loss), and the progressively changing concentrations of manganese (Mn), nitrogen (N), and acid unhydrolyzable residue (AUR), as well as mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP). Using available long-term decomposition studies on pine needle litter in a climate gradient in Sweden, we calculated annual mass loss and related to concentrations of Mn, N, and AUR at the start of each one-year period as well as to MAT and MAP. We investigated these relationships for (i) all data on annual mass loss combined and (ii) annual mass loss for five different decomposition categories as defined by accumulated mass loss.