There is growing evidence to suggest that soil microbes play a more influential and dynamic role in leaf litter decomposition than was previously considered. For instance, microbial communities may exhibit home-field advantage (HFA) – greater than expected rates of decomposition on their home litter –, and/or a greater or lesser degree of functional breadth (FB) – a communities capacity to degrade an array of litters. However, the factors that account for home-field advantage or the degree of functional breadth are unexplored. In this research, we seek to elucidate those factors that are related to both HFA and FB by conducting a full factorial reciprocal transplant experiment. For this experiment, we sourced litters, representing variation in litter quality, and soil inocula from 3 locations in the Eastern US and 3 location in the Western US. We assessed soil, litter, and microbial community characteristics and monitored litter decomposition, via C-mineralization, across a 150 day incubation. After, the incubation we determined HFA and FB for each soil inoculum and examined relationships between each to initial litter and inoculum characteristics.
Results/Conclusions
Not surprisingly, initial results show significant differences in mineralization rates between litter species. However, results also indicate significant differences between soil inocula, suggesting differences in the functional capacity of various soil microbial communities. Interestingly, these differences in function may be primarily driven by the region (Eastern vs Wester US) that a particular inoculum was sourced from. Further, examination will be conducted to determine factors related to HFA and FB. Litter decomposition is a key ecosystem process that is vital to biogeochemical cycles. Assuming that microbial communities have functional dissimilarity will imply that changing climates and the ensuing shifts in litter quality could have large impacts on the role of microbial communities in litter decomposition. By performing this research we hope to discover the relationship that HFA & FB have as well as the difference in soil microbial communities across both a geographic and litter quality range. We also expect to better understand the relationship between HFA & FB. Information such as this could aid in creating more accurate models that will better enable us to understand the process of litter decomposition.