The role of functional and phylogenetic diversity in riparian tree vegetation on leaf litter breakdown in rivers
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Swan, C.M. and Sparkman, A. (2023), The role of functional and phylogenetic diversity in riparian tree vegetation on leaf litter breakdown in rivers. Oikos e09361. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09361
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This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Swan, C.M. and Sparkman, A. (2023), The role of functional and phylogenetic diversity in riparian tree vegetation on leaf litter breakdown in rivers. Oikos e09361. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09361, which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/oik.09361. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Access to this item will begin on 01-20-2024
Access to this item will begin on 01-20-2024
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Abstract
While how taxonomic diversity mediates changes in ecosystem function is well-studied, how deeper
dimensions of biodiversity drive important processes is understudied. The overarching goal of this work
was to determine the role of these dimensions of biodiversity independently and/or interactively in
explaining carbon processing in rivers. Here, we explicitly link community structure and subsequent traits
of riparian forests to adjacent ecosystem processing of carbon (e.g., leaf litter). This was accomplished by
examining how forests are actually structured in addition to experimental manipulations of phylogenetic
and functional diversities of riparian forest community inputs of leaf litter to streams. Experimental field
manipulations were carried out in three Piedmont headwater streams to answer the following questions:
(1) Does existing variation in taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of riparian communities
differentially drive decomposition in rivers? And (2) Independent of taxonomic diversity, how does
functional and phylogenetic diversity of leaf litter assemblages influence rates of decomposition in rivers?
We observed significant interspecific variation in breakdown among 30 riparian tree species, in addition to
significant relationships between breakdown rate and important foliar tissue chemistries. Breakdown of mixtures that reflected the composition of the riparian species composition did not vary with functional nor
phylogenetic diversity, but breakdown of litter mixtures was higher than that of single species. In a
separate study, when manipulated independently, functional and phylogenetic diversity were positively
related to breakdown, and explained similar degrees of variation. These results are important to
understand in light of deepening knowledge of the role different dimensions of biodiversity take in
explaining ecosystem function.