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Urine as an important source of sodium increases decomposition in an inland but not coastal tropical forest

  • Ecosystem ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Nutrient pulses can profoundly impact ecosystem processes and urine is a frequently deposited source of N and K, and Na. Na is unimportant to plants, but its addition can increase decomposition and change invertebrate community structure in Na-poor tropical forests. Here we used synthetic urine to separate the effects of Na from urine’s other nutrients and contrasted their roles in promoting decomposition and detritivore recruitment in both a Na-poor inland Ecuadorian and Na-rich coastal Panamanian tropical forest. After 2 days, invertebrate communities did not vary among +Na, H2O, Urine+Na, and Urine−Na treatments. But after 2 weeks, Ecuador wood, but not cellulose, decomposition was twofold higher on Urine+Na and +Na plots compared to H2O and Urine−Na plots accompanied by >20-fold increases in termite abundance on these plots. Panama, in contrast, showed no effect of Na on decomposition. In both forests, plots fertilized with urine had nearly twofold decrease in detritivores after 2 weeks that was likely a shock effect from ammonification. Moreover, the non-Na nutrients in urine did not enhance decomposition at this time scale. On control plots, Panama had higher decomposition rates for both cellulose and wood than Ecuador, but the addition of Na in Ecuador alleviated these differences. These results support the hypothesis that in Na-poor tropical forests, urine can enhance wood decomposition and generate an important source of heterogeneity in the abundance and activity of brown food webs.

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Acknowledgments

We thank D. Flatt, K. Tholt, J. Burks and D. Rinehart for help in the laboratory. Special thanks to N. Velasco and T. Zumbusch, who were invaluable in the field. We also thank Oris Acevedo and Belkys Jiménez and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute staff on BCI, Panama, and ANAM for permit SEX/AP-3-09. Miguel Rodriquez and Alvaro Barragán provided logistical help in Quito and Yasuni. We thank the Ministerio de Ambiente del Ecuador for research permit 0020-2010-IC-FUN-DPO-MA. All experiments comply with the current laws of the countries in which the experiments were performed. Funding was provided from NSF DEB-0948762 (principal investigator M. Kaspari).

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  1. Natalie A. Clay

    Present address: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University, Clay Lyle Entomology Building—Room 110, Box 9775, 39762, Mississippi State, MS, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Natalie A. Clay & Michael Kaspari

  2. Museo de Colecciones Biológicas MUTPL, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja San Cayetano, 8 Alto s/n, C.P. 11 01 608, Loja, Ecuador

    David A. Donoso

  3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Panama

    Michael Kaspari

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  1. Natalie A. Clay
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Correspondence to Natalie A. Clay.

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Communicated by Stefan Scheu.

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Clay, N.A., Donoso, D.A. & Kaspari, M. Urine as an important source of sodium increases decomposition in an inland but not coastal tropical forest. Oecologia 177, 571–579 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3183-4

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