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Linkages between grazing history and herbivore exclusion on decomposition rates in mineral soils of subalpine grasslands

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Abstract

Background & aims

Herbivore-driven changes to soil properties can influence the decomposition rate of organic material and therefore soil carbon cycling within grassland ecosystems. We investigated how aboveground foraging mammalian and invertebrate herbivores affect mineral soil decomposition rates and associated soil properties in two subalpine vegetation types (short-grass and tall-grass) with different grazing histories.

Methods

Using exclosures with differing mesh sizes, we progressively excluded large, medium and small mammals and invertebrates from the two vegetation types in the Swiss National Park (SNP). Mineral soil decomposition rates were assessed using the cotton cloth (standard substrate) method between May and September 2010.

Results

Decomposition displayed strong spatio-temporal variability, best explained by soil temperature. Exclusion of large mammals increased decomposition rates, but further exclusion reduced decomposition rates again in the lightly grazed (tall-grass) vegetation. No difference among treatments was found in the heavily grazed (short-grass) vegetation. Heavily grazed areas had higher decomposition rates than the lightly grazed areas because of higher soil temperatures. Microbial biomass carbon and soil C:N ratio were also linked to spatio-temporal decomposition patterns, but not to grazing history.

Conclusions

Despite altering some of the environmental controls of decomposition, cellulose decomposition rates in the SNP’s subalpine grasslands appear to be mostly resistant to short-term herbivore exclusion.

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Abbreviations

SNP:

Swiss National Park

C:

Carbon

N:

Nitrogen

P:

Phosphorus

OM:

Organic matter

MBC:

Microbial biomass carbon

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PC:

Principal component

PWP:

Permanent wilting point

CTSL:

Cotton tensile strength loss

CRR:

Cotton rotting rate

q mic :

Microbial quotient (microbial C:soil C)

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the employees and volunteers of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research and the Swiss National Park for assistance with fence construction, data collection and lab analyses. Special thanks go to Anna Schweiger for assistance preparing the cloths. We are also grateful to the SNP for administrative support throughout our research, as well as Douglas A. Frank and three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on previous versions of the manuscript. This study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, SNF grant-no 31003A_122009/1, to ACR, MS and Flurin Filli (SNP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Alan G. Haynes, Martin Schütz & Anita C. Risch

  2. Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Nina Buchmann

  3. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID, 83843, USA

    Deborah S. Page-Dumroese

  4. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, 3644 Avtech Parkway, Redding, CA, 96002, USA

    Matt D. Busse

Authors
  1. Alan G. Haynes
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  2. Martin Schütz
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  3. Nina Buchmann
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  4. Deborah S. Page-Dumroese
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  5. Matt D. Busse
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  6. Anita C. Risch
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Correspondence to Alan G. Haynes.

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Haynes, A.G., Schütz, M., Buchmann, N. et al. Linkages between grazing history and herbivore exclusion on decomposition rates in mineral soils of subalpine grasslands. Plant Soil 374, 579–591 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-013-1905-8

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