Research Article

Typhoon-induced litter on lawns and soil surfaces exhibit divergent decomposition patterns

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  • aCollege of Forestry, Northwest A & F University, Yangling 712100, China

    bZhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Restoration of Damaged Coastal Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China

    cLinhai Station of Zhejiang Provincial Forest Ecological Research, School of Life Sciences, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China

    dTiantai Station of Zhejiang Provincial Forest Ecological Research, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang, PR China

    eTaizhou Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Special Industry Cultivation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang, China

    fChina Railway ErYuan Engineering Group CO., LTD, Chengdu 610083, China


    *Authors for corresponding: 
    Weizhong Li, liweizhong@nwsuaf.edu.cn 
    Wanqin Yang, scyangwq@163.com

Received date: 2025-06-30

  Accepted date: 2025-08-30

  Online published: 2025-09-10

Supported by

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A20450, 32401360 and 32201537).

Abstract

Typhoon-generated green litter is commonly deposited on lawns and soil surfaces in urban forest ecosystems, where differences in microenvironmental conditions and soil fauna accessibility may alter the pathways of carbon (C) and nutrient cycling during litter decomposition. However, knowledge regarding the decomposition of typhoon-generated green litter and physiologically senesced litter in these microhabitats remains limited. To address this gap, we simultaneously incubated typhoon-generated green and naturally senesced leaf litter of camphor (Cinnamomum camphora) tree on the lawn and soil surfaces in combination with soil fauna exclusion. The mass remaining of senesced and green litter was significantly lower on lawns than on soil, and the mass remaining of senesced litter was significantly higher than that of green litter in both microhabitats. Carbon remaining in senesced and green litter on the lawn was markedly lower than those on the soil surface. Additionally, C and nitrogen (N) remaining in green litter were substantially lower than those in senesced litter. A notable decrease in C, N, and phosphorus (P) remaining in green litter on the soil surface occurred after the spring litter peak. Furthermore, soil fauna significantly reduced litter mass remaining, as well as C and P remaining, exerting a stronger effect on the decomposition of green litter than on senesced litter. We conclude that green and senesced litter exhibit distinct decomposition patterns across microhabitats.

Cite this article

Yurui Jiang, Lifeng Wang, Huaibin Wang, Rui Cao, Zhuang Wang, Qin Wang, Weizhong Li, Wanqin Yang . Typhoon-induced litter on lawns and soil surfaces exhibit divergent decomposition patterns[J]. Journal of Plant Ecology, 0 : 1 . DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtaf151

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