Publications by authors named "Charles M'Erimba"
Running waters contribute substantially to global carbon fluxes through decomposition of terrestrial plant litter by aquatic microorganisms and detritivores. Diversity of this litter may influence instream decomposition globally in ways that are not yet understood. We investigated latitudinal differences in decomposition of litter mixtures of low and high functional diversity in 40 streams on 6 continents and spanning 113° of latitude.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Accessibility to potable water is a fundamental right for dignity and well-being. Despite this observation, more than 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.
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- Plant litter plays a crucial role in stream ecosystems, with its decomposition influenced by various litter traits that may vary with latitude.
- A global study assessed litter quality in 151 species across 24 regions, revealing that litter quality tends to be higher at higher latitudes, while tropical regions exhibit lower quality and different nutrient ratios.
- Findings indicate that environmental factors primarily drive litter trait variation rather than phylogeny, which suggests that the lower quality litter in the tropics contributes to a greater reliance on microbial decomposition over detritivore-mediated processes.
Article Synopsis
- Plant litter breakdown is crucial for ecosystems, especially in streams and rivers, which significantly impact global carbon cycles.
- A global study involving 24 streams across various latitudes analyzed how biotic, climatic, and environmental factors influenced litter breakdown rates.
- Findings indicated that alder breakdown was mostly affected by climate and pH, while litter mixtures showed that quality and phylogenetic diversity were key factors, with outcomes differing at various temperatures and latitudes.
The decomposition of plant litter is one of the most important ecosystem processes in the biosphere and is particularly sensitive to climate warming. Aquatic ecosystems are well suited to studying warming effects on decomposition because the otherwise confounding influence of moisture is constant. By using a latitudinal temperature gradient in an unprecedented global experiment in streams, we found that climate warming will likely hasten microbial litter decomposition and produce an equivalent decline in detritivore-mediated decomposition rates.
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