The role of functional and phylogenetic diversity in riparian tree vegetation on leaf litter breakdown in rivers

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Swan & Sparkman Oikos Rev 2.pdf (764.49 KB)

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https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/oik.09361

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https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09361
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/26775

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UMBC Biological Sciences Department
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Author/Creator ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9763-9630

Date

2023-01-10

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journal articles
postprints
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Citation of Original Publication

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.
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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.