Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/98691
Title: Litter Decomposition as an Indicator of Stream Ecosystem Functioning at Local-to-Continental Scales: Insights from the European RivFunction Project
Authors: Chauvet, Eric
Ferreira, Verónica 
Giller, Paul S.
Mckie, Brendan G.
Tiegs, Scott D.
Woodward, Guy
Elosegi, Arturo
Graça, M. A. S. 
et al.
Editors: Dumbrell, A.J.
Kordas, R.L.
Woodward, Guy
Issue Date: 2016
Publisher: Elsevier
Project: EVK1-2001-00023 
Serial title, monograph or event: Large-Scale Ecology: Model Systems to Global Perspectives
Volume: 55
Abstract: RivFunction is a pan-European initiative that started in 2002 and was aimed at establishing a novel functional-based approach to assessing the ecological status of rivers. Litter decomposition was chosen as the focal process because it plays a central role in stream ecosystems and is easy to study in the field. Impacts of two stressors that occur across the continent, nutrient pollution and modified riparian vegetation, were examined at >200 paired sites in nine European ecoregions. In response to the former, decomposition was dramatically slowed at both extremes of a 1000-fold nutrient gradient, indicating nutrient limitation in unpolluted sites, highly variable responses across Europe in moderately impacted streams, and inhibition via associated toxic and additional stressors in highly polluted streams. Riparian forest modification by clear cutting or replacement of natural vegetation by plantations (e.g. conifers, eucalyptus) or pasture produced similarly complex responses. Clear effects caused by specific riparian disturbances were observed in regionally focused studies, but general trends across different types of riparian modifications were not apparent, in part possibly because of important indirect effects. Complementary field and laboratory experiments were undertaken to tease apart the mechanistic drivers of the continental scale field bioassays by addressing the influence of litter, fungal and detritivore diversity. These revealed generally weak and context-dependent effects on decomposition, suggesting high levels of redundancy (and hence potential insurance mechanisms that can mitigate a degree of species loss) within the food web. Reduced species richness consistently increased decomposition variability, if not the absolute rate. Further field studies were aimed at identifying important sources of this variability (e.g. litter quality, temporal variability) to help constrain ranges of predicted decomposition rates in different field situations. Thus, although many details still need to be resolved, litter decomposition holds considerable potential in some circumstances to capture impairment of stream ecosystem functioning. For instance, species traits associated with the body size and metabolic capacity of the consumers were often the main driver at local scales, and these were often translated into important determinants of otherwise apparently contingent effects at larger scales. Key insights gained from conducting continental scale studies included resolving the apparent paradox of inconsistent relationships between nutrients and decomposition rates, as the full complex multidimensional picture emerged from the large-scale dataset, of which only seemingly contradictory fragments had been seen previously.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/98691
ISBN: 9780081009352
ISSN: 0065-2504
DOI: 10.1016/bs.aecr.2016.08.006
Rights: openAccess
Appears in Collections:FCTUC Ciências da Vida - Livros e Capítulos de Livros

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat
Chauvet&al2016_AER.pdf2.98 MBAdobe PDFView/Open
Show full item record

SCOPUSTM   
Citations

55
checked on Nov 9, 2022

WEB OF SCIENCETM
Citations

55
checked on May 2, 2023

Page view(s)

200
checked on Oct 8, 2024

Download(s)

322
checked on Oct 8, 2024

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric

Altmetric


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.