Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands

Understanding how global change drivers and their interactions affect decomposition in wetlands embedded in agricultural landscapes remains challenging, especially in tropical and subtropical biomes, which are disproportionately important for global carbon cycling yet with high uncertainties. In a l...

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Autores principales:	Yuxi Guo, Elizabeth H. Boughton, Jiangxiao Qiu
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Agricultural practice Grazing Fire Land-use intensity Wetland management Carbon cycling Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/8bb1446914d04458bde412f28e1d4679
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:8bb1446914d04458bde412f28e1d46792021-12-01T05:02:06ZInteractive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands1470-160X10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108301https://doaj.org/article/8bb1446914d04458bde412f28e1d46792021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X21009663https://doaj.org/toc/1470-160XUnderstanding how global change drivers and their interactions affect decomposition in wetlands embedded in agricultural landscapes remains challenging, especially in tropical and subtropical biomes, which are disproportionately important for global carbon cycling yet with high uncertainties. In a long-term whole-ecosystem experiment, we used a widely-adopted indicator of decomposition, the Teabag Index (TBI), to investigate individual and interactive effects of surrounding land-use intensity, cattle grazing, and prescribed fire on seasonal wetland decomposition (i.e., decay rate k, and stabilization factor S) in an exemplar subtropical landscape in central-south Florida, USA. We ask: (1) How do land-use intensity and management practices affect the decomposition in seasonal wetlands? (2) How does wetland decomposition vary with hydrological gradient and seasonal climatic condition? (3) What are the dominant direct and indirect pathways through which land-use intensity and management practices affect wetland decomposition? Our results showed that, overall, surrounding land-use intensity exerted much stronger effects on litter decomposition compared to grazing and prescribed fire, and cattle grazing reduced decomposition rate k. There was a complex three-way interaction among land-use intensity, grazing and fire on the stabilization factor S – a proxy related to carbon sequestration potential. Grazing-fire interactive effects on S only existed in wetlands embedded in intensively-managed landscapes, where grazing reduced S in burned wetlands but did not affect S in unburned wetlands. Decay rate k showed profound temporal variation primarily driven by seasonal climatic conditions (especially precipitation), whereas S varied spatially along the hydrological gradient. Our structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses further revealed that effects on k were also indirectly manifested through changes on soil C/N, C/P, and pH, while effects on S were manifested through alterations in soil C/P ratio, pH, soil nutrients and water content. Our TBI results suggest that anthropogenic environmental changes, including land-use intensification, livestock introduction and fire suppression, could compromise carbon sequestration potential in tropical and subtropical seasonal wetlands. Our research highlights the importance of considering landscape context in wetland management and demonstrates the use of TBI as an indicator to quantify and inform combinations of land management and agricultural practices could conserve wetlands and sustain their vital functions and services, especially from the lens of promoting carbon storage and nutrient retention services.Yuxi GuoElizabeth H. BoughtonJiangxiao QiuElsevierarticleAgricultural practiceGrazingFireLand-use intensityWetland managementCarbon cyclingEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcological Indicators, Vol 132, Iss , Pp 108301- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Agricultural practice Grazing Fire Land-use intensity Wetland management Carbon cycling Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	Agricultural practice Grazing Fire Land-use intensity Wetland management Carbon cycling Ecology QH540-549.5 Yuxi Guo Elizabeth H. Boughton Jiangxiao Qiu Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands
description	Understanding how global change drivers and their interactions affect decomposition in wetlands embedded in agricultural landscapes remains challenging, especially in tropical and subtropical biomes, which are disproportionately important for global carbon cycling yet with high uncertainties. In a long-term whole-ecosystem experiment, we used a widely-adopted indicator of decomposition, the Teabag Index (TBI), to investigate individual and interactive effects of surrounding land-use intensity, cattle grazing, and prescribed fire on seasonal wetland decomposition (i.e., decay rate k, and stabilization factor S) in an exemplar subtropical landscape in central-south Florida, USA. We ask: (1) How do land-use intensity and management practices affect the decomposition in seasonal wetlands? (2) How does wetland decomposition vary with hydrological gradient and seasonal climatic condition? (3) What are the dominant direct and indirect pathways through which land-use intensity and management practices affect wetland decomposition? Our results showed that, overall, surrounding land-use intensity exerted much stronger effects on litter decomposition compared to grazing and prescribed fire, and cattle grazing reduced decomposition rate k. There was a complex three-way interaction among land-use intensity, grazing and fire on the stabilization factor S – a proxy related to carbon sequestration potential. Grazing-fire interactive effects on S only existed in wetlands embedded in intensively-managed landscapes, where grazing reduced S in burned wetlands but did not affect S in unburned wetlands. Decay rate k showed profound temporal variation primarily driven by seasonal climatic conditions (especially precipitation), whereas S varied spatially along the hydrological gradient. Our structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses further revealed that effects on k were also indirectly manifested through changes on soil C/N, C/P, and pH, while effects on S were manifested through alterations in soil C/P ratio, pH, soil nutrients and water content. Our TBI results suggest that anthropogenic environmental changes, including land-use intensification, livestock introduction and fire suppression, could compromise carbon sequestration potential in tropical and subtropical seasonal wetlands. Our research highlights the importance of considering landscape context in wetland management and demonstrates the use of TBI as an indicator to quantify and inform combinations of land management and agricultural practices could conserve wetlands and sustain their vital functions and services, especially from the lens of promoting carbon storage and nutrient retention services.
format	article
author	Yuxi Guo Elizabeth H. Boughton Jiangxiao Qiu
author_facet	Yuxi Guo Elizabeth H. Boughton Jiangxiao Qiu
author_sort	Yuxi Guo
title	Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands
title_short	Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands
title_full	Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands
title_fullStr	Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands
title_full_unstemmed	Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands
title_sort	interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/8bb1446914d04458bde412f28e1d4679
work_keys_str_mv	AT yuxiguo interactiveeffectsoflanduseintensitygrazingandfireondecompositionofsubtropicalseasonalwetlands AT elizabethhboughton interactiveeffectsoflanduseintensitygrazingandfireondecompositionofsubtropicalseasonalwetlands AT jiangxiaoqiu interactiveeffectsoflanduseintensitygrazingandfireondecompositionofsubtropicalseasonalwetlands
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Interactive effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire on decomposition of subtropical seasonal wetlands

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