Abstract
Although a great number of studies have been performed the past decades on the relationship between species richness and ecosystem function, large-scale studies than span long successional gradients are few. The proposed study will investigate plant litter breakdown along natural successional gradients in boreal forest archipelagos of northern Sweden. The islands are of different sizes and therefore get struck by lightning at different frequencies leading to them being in different successional stages both among plants and decomposers. In the study, soil samples will be taken from each island to estimate decomposer diversity and composition. Furthermore, by transplanting litterbags containing one, three or six species on islands with different decomposer richness the effect of 1) litter species richness, 2) decomposer species richness, and 3) interactions between litter species richness and the decomposer community, on decomposition rates, can be investigated. The project will give important insights into how changed diversity may affect ecosystem functioning in natural systems. Such information will be important in its own right, and for enabling testing of whether results obtained from previous and future short-term and small- scale studies are consistent with what happens in the field in real ecosystems over large spatial scales.
Sweden