TY - JOUR

T1 - The influence of leaf litter diversity and soil fauna on initial soil erosion in subtropical forests

AU - Seitz, Steffen

AU - Goebes, Philipp

AU - Zumstein, Pascale

AU - Aßmann, Thorsten

AU - Kühn, Peter

AU - Niklaus, Pascal A.

AU - Schuldt, Andreas

AU - Scholten, Thomas

PY - 2015/9/15

Y1 - 2015/9/15

N2 - Although the protective role of leaf litter cover against soil erosion is known for a long time, little research has been conducted on the processes involved. Moreover, the impact of soil meso- and macrofauna within the litter layer on erosion control is not clear. To investigate how leaf litter cover and diversity as well as meso- and macrofauna influence sediment discharge in subtropical forest ecosystems, a field experiment has been carried out in Southeast China. A full-factorial random design with 96 micro-scale runoff plots and 7 domestic leaf species was established and erosion was triggered by a rainfall simulator. Our results demonstrate that leaf litter cover protects soil from erosion (−82 % sediment discharge on leaf covered plots) by rainfall and this protection is removed as litter decomposes. The protective effect is influenced by the presence or absence of soil meso- and macrofauna. Fauna presence increases soil erosion rates significantly by 58 %, while leaf species diversity shows a non-significant negative trend. We assume that the faunal effect arises from arthropods slackening and processing the soil surface as well as fragmenting and decomposing the protecting leaf litter covers. Even though the diversity level did not show a significant influence, single leaf species in monocultures show rather different impacts on sediment discharge and thus, erosion control. In our experiment, runoff plots with leaf litter from Machilus thunbergii showed the highest sediment discharge (68.0 g m−2) whereas plots with Cyclobalanopsis glauca showed the smallest rates (7.9 g m−2).

AB - Although the protective role of leaf litter cover against soil erosion is known for a long time, little research has been conducted on the processes involved. Moreover, the impact of soil meso- and macrofauna within the litter layer on erosion control is not clear. To investigate how leaf litter cover and diversity as well as meso- and macrofauna influence sediment discharge in subtropical forest ecosystems, a field experiment has been carried out in Southeast China. A full-factorial random design with 96 micro-scale runoff plots and 7 domestic leaf species was established and erosion was triggered by a rainfall simulator. Our results demonstrate that leaf litter cover protects soil from erosion (−82 % sediment discharge on leaf covered plots) by rainfall and this protection is removed as litter decomposes. The protective effect is influenced by the presence or absence of soil meso- and macrofauna. Fauna presence increases soil erosion rates significantly by 58 %, while leaf species diversity shows a non-significant negative trend. We assume that the faunal effect arises from arthropods slackening and processing the soil surface as well as fragmenting and decomposing the protecting leaf litter covers. Even though the diversity level did not show a significant influence, single leaf species in monocultures show rather different impacts on sediment discharge and thus, erosion control. In our experiment, runoff plots with leaf litter from Machilus thunbergii showed the highest sediment discharge (68.0 g m−2) whereas plots with Cyclobalanopsis glauca showed the smallest rates (7.9 g m−2).

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - BEF China

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Erosion control

KW - Rainfall simulation

KW - Runoff plot

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84941789300&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/esp.3726

DO - 10.1002/esp.3726

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 40

SP - 1439

EP - 1447

JO - Earth Surface Processes and Landforms

JF - Earth Surface Processes and Landforms

SN - 0197-9337

IS - 11

ER -