Publications by authors named "Tadeusz Fleituch"
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how the diversity of detritivores (organisms that break down dead organic material) affects the decomposition of litter in streams across a global scale, involving 38 streams in 23 countries.
- Results show a positive correlation between detritivore diversity and litter decomposition, with this effect being particularly strong in tropical regions.
- The findings highlight the potential impact of detritivore extinctions on decomposition processes, especially in tropical areas where diversity is already low and environmental stressors are common.
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.
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- River ecosystems play a crucial role in processing terrestrial organic carbon, and this process is heavily influenced by microbial activity.
- A global study involving over 1000 river and riparian sites revealed distinct carbon processing patterns across different biomes, showing slower processing at higher latitudes and faster rates near the equator.
- The findings suggest temperature and environmental factors affect carbon processing rates, providing a foundation for future biomonitoring efforts to assess environmental impacts on ecosystems worldwide.
Article Synopsis
- 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.
Excessive nutrient loading is a major threat to aquatic ecosystems worldwide that leads to profound changes in aquatic biodiversity and biogeochemical processes. Systematic quantitative assessment of functional ecosystem measures for river networks is, however, lacking, especially at continental scales. Here, we narrow this gap by means of a pan-European field experiment on a fundamental ecosystem process--leaf-litter breakdown--in 100 streams across a greater than 1000-fold nutrient gradient.
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