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Contributed Talk

Session: : Biogeochemistry: Aboveground-Belowground Interactions 3

COS 298-2 - Quantifying the effect of invertebrates on wood decomposition across the world

Thursday, August 10, 2023
3:45 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Location: B115

    Presenting Author(s)

  • DN

    DENIS MBURU NJOROGE

    Wuhan Botanical Garden University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    NAIVASHA KENYA, Rift Valley, Kenya

    • Coauthor(s)

  • GD

    Gbadamassi G.O. Dossa

    Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden (CAS), China (People's Republic)

  • JZ

    Juan Zuo

    University of chinese academy of sciences Wuhan Botanical Garden, Hubei, China (People's Republic)

  • DS

    Douglas Schaefer

    Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science, China (People's Republic)

  • MU

    Michael D. Ulyshen

    USDA Forest Service, United States

  • SS

    Sebastian Seibold

    Forest Zoology, Technical University of Dresden, Tharandt Germany, Germany

  • Az

    Amy zanne

    Department of Biology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA, United States

  • BO

    Brad Oberle

    Division of Natural Sciences, New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL, USA, United States

  • RH

    Rhett D. Harrison

    CIFOR-ICRAF, St Eugene Office Park, Lake Road, Lusaka, Zambia, Zambia

  • SL

    Shengjie Liu

    CAS, China (People's Republic)

  • XL

    Xiaobo Li

    College of Resources and Environment, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, China (People's Republic)

  • TB

    Tone Birkemoe

    Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway, Norway

  • MT

    Melanie K. Taylor

    USDA Forest Service/ University of Georgia, United States

  • JC

    Johannes H. C. Cornelissen

    Systems Ecology, A-LIFE, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Netherlands

  • Philip J. J. Burton, Ph.D., R.P.Bio.

    Professor
    Ecosystem Science and Management Program, University of Northern British Columbia, Terrace, British Columbia, Canada.
    Terrace, British Columbia, Canada

  • DL

    David Lindenmayer

    The Australian National University, Australia

  • JK

    Jari Kouki

    School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland, Finland

  • YA

    Yagya Adhikari

    University of Bayreuth Universitätsstr. 30 D - 95447 Bayreuth Germany., Germany

Abstract: Invertebrates are important agents of wood decomposition globally, but their contribution to wood decomposition varies with climate. Yet it remains poorly understood what drives global patterns of invertebrate effects on wood decomposition. Here, we aimed to quantify drivers of variation in the effects of invertebrates on wood decomposition at a global scale using meta-analysis. We used litsearchr R package to optimize initial search terms. The optimized search terms were later used to search for studies in Scopus and web of science databases. We included studies that (i) Reported explicitly the methods used to allow or deny invertebrates access to the WD during decomposition (ii) Reported changes in WD mass or density or volume through decomposition duration or associated decay rate estimates in the presence or absence of invertebrates in both inclusion or exclusion treatments. (iii) Reported the tree species and diameter of the WD used. (iv) Reported the duration of decomposition. In total, we got 20 studies covering 1547 paired observations reporting WD decomposition in presence and absence of invertebrates. To estimate the overall effect of invertebrates on WD we used log response ratio (ln(RR)) and applied multilevel random effect meta-analysis using metafor R package. We show that wood decomposition rates are approximately 40% higher when invertebrates are present compared to wood from which they were excluded. This acceleration is highest in the tropics, owing mainly to termites, but lowest in the continental climate zone. In addition, we highlight that wood traits that delay fungal colonization relative to invertebrate colonization or slow fungal activities, subsequently boost invertebrate effects during wood decomposition. We demonstrate that the presence of bark constrains invertebrates’ effect on wood decomposition, highlighting the afterlife effect of bark on the decomposition. Further, we demonstrate that using wood without bark in decomposition experiments may lead to an overestimation of invertebrate contribution to wood decomposition. Our data also show similar effect sizes of invertebrates on decomposition of woody debris derived from angiosperms and gymnosperms globally. Our results highlight the highly consequential interaction between microorganism colonization and invertebrate effect on wood decomposition. We emphasize the need to better quantify invertebrate contribution to wood decomposition with the ultimate goal of improving biogeochemical models.