Abstract

Litter decomposition is not fully explained by the general triangle of climate, litter quality and soil decomposers. Therefore, other theoretical frameworks, such as Home-Field Advantage (HFA), have emerged to explain the remaining variation of decomposition. HFA states that litter decomposes faster in their site of origin (home) than far from it (away). However, there are no consistent patterns of HFA and this can varies depending the ecosystem and plant species analyzed. One of the most variable ecosystems in terms of species biodiversity turnover, topography, and soil conditions are the Upper Andean Tropical Forests (UATF), but to date there is no study testing HFA in this ecosystem. Here, HFA was tested through a reciprocal litterbag translocation field experiment across different UATF. The experiment comprised 2520 litterbags placed in 14 20 × 20 m plots that belonged to four sites to analyze decomposition of 15 plant species for 18 months. Of these 15 species, seven were present at only one site. The mean decomposition was calculated for all 15 species to determine the relative decomposition at each site and the decomposition of the seven species at home and away sites was analyzed through two-way ANOVA (sites × species) and linear mixed models. I contrasted environmental charcteristics between sites including litter depth, slope, leaf area index, canopy openness, and microclimatic variables. The results showed that the pattern of decomposition was always the same, no matter the origin of the species and the decomposition period. Microclimate, litter depth, and slope varied between sites, yet these differences were not enough to influence affinity effects of decomposition, as relative decay rates were similar between home and away sites. Overall, no HFA was found in UATF possibly because: (i) strong environmental filters along montane forests homogenize decomposer communities; (ii) high diversity in litters drive decomposers with high ability to degrade different organic compounds; (iii) little adaptation of decomposers to recurrent litter as they respond mainly to changes in litter quality. These results imply that changes in species composition by current anthropogenic pressures could have profound impacts on carbon cycle and nutrient fluxes depending on the identity of species arriving in UATF.

  Keywords

---

Carbon Cycling, Colombian Andes, Litter Decomposition, Litter Affinity Effects, Montane Forests, Nutrient Cycles, Reciprocal Litter Transplant, Plant-soil Feedbacks

Authors’ Info

Paper Info

Citation

Castillo-Figueroa D (2024). No home-field advantage in upper Andean tropical forests despite strong differences in site environmental characteristics. iForest 17: 286-294. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4518-017

Academic Editor

Michele Carbognani

Paper history

Copyright Information

© SISEF - The Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology 2024

  Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Web Metrics

Citation Metrics

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Feb 2023)

(No citations were found up to date. Please come back later)

---

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

References

Related Content

Effects of stand age on litter quality, decomposition rate and nutrient release of Kazdagi fir (Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani)
Savaci G, Sariyildiz T
Vol. 13, pp. 396-403 (online: Oct 2020)

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on microbial activity and nutrient release are sensitive to acid deposition during litter decomposition in a subtropical Cinnamomum camphora forest
Wu C, Kong X, He X, Lin Y, He Z, Gao Y, Kong Q
Vol. 16, pp. 314-324 (online: Dec 2023)

The manipulation of aboveground litter input affects soil CO₂ efflux in a subtropical liquidambar forest in China
Yan W, Peng Y, Zhang C, Chen X
Vol. 12, pp. 181-186 (online: Apr 2019)

Effect of plant species on P cycle-related microorganisms associated with litter decomposition and P soil availability: implications for agroforestry management
Correa E, Carvalhais L, Utida M, Oliveira CA, Scotti MR
Vol. 9, pp. 294-302 (online: Apr 2016)

Soil fauna communities and microbial activities response to litter and soil properties under degraded and restored forests of Hyrcania
Bazyari M, Etemad V, Kooch Y, Shirvany A
Vol. 14, pp. 490-498 (online: Dec 2021)

Mid-rotation fertilization and liming of Pinus taeda: growth, litter, fine root mass, and elemental composition
Adam WM, Rodrigues VDS, Magri E, Motta ACV, Prior SA, Moraes Zambon L, Lima RLD
Vol. 14, pp. 195-202 (online: Apr 2021)

Litter quality changes during decomposition investigated by thermal analysis
Gioacchini P, Montecchio D, Ferrari E, Ciavatta C, Masia A, George E, Tonon G
Vol. 8, pp. 827-837 (online: Dec 2015)

Soil respiration along an altitudinal gradient in a subalpine secondary forest in China
Luo S, Liu G, Li Z, Hu C, Gong L, Wang M, Hu H
Vol. 8, pp. 526-532 (online: Aug 2015)

Changes in organic compounds during leaf litter leaching: laboratory experiment on eight plant species of the Sudano-guinea Savannas of Ngaoundere, Cameroon
Ibrahima A, Biyanzi P, Halima M
Vol. 1, pp. 27-33 (online: Feb 2008)

Contribution of legume and non-legume trees to litter dynamics and C-N-P inputs in a secondary seasonally dry tropical forest
Neves NM, Paula RR, Araujo EA, Gorsani RG, Abreu KMPD, Kunz SH
Vol. 15, pp. 8-15 (online: Feb 2022)