Litter Decomposition in a Semiarid Dune Grassland: Neutral Effect of Water Supply and Inhibitory Effect of Nitrogen Addition

BACKGROUND The decomposition of plant material in arid ecosystems is considered to be substantially controlled by water and N availability. The responses of litter decomposition to external N and water, however, remain controversial, and the interactive effects of supplementary N and water also have been largely unexamined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A 3.5-year field experiment with supplementary nitrogen and water was conducted to assess the effects of N and water addition on mass loss and nitrogen release in leaves and fine roots of three dominant plant species (i.e., Artemisia halondendron, Setaria viridis, and Phragmites australis) with contrasting substrate chemistry (e.g. N concentration, lignin content in this study) in a desertified dune grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. The treatments included N addition, water addition, combination of N and water, and an untreated control. The decomposition rate in both leaves and roots was related to the initial litter N and lignin concentrations of the three species. However, litter quality did not explain the slower mass loss in roots than in leaves in the present study, and thus warrant further research. Nitrogen addition, either alone or in combination with water, significantly inhibited dry mass loss and N release in the leaves and roots of the three species, whereas water input had little effect on the decomposition of leaf litter and fine roots, suggesting that there was no interactive effect of supplementary N and water on litter decomposition in this system. Furthermore, our results clearly indicate that the inhibitory effects of external N on dry mass loss and nitrogen release are relatively strong in high-lignin litter compared with low-lignin litter. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE These findings suggest that increasing precipitation hardly facilitates ecosystem carbon turnover but atmospheric N deposition can enhance carbon sequestration and nitrogen retention in desertified dune grasslands of northern China. Additionally, litter quality of plant species should be considered when modelling the carbon cycle and nutrient dynamics of this system.