Leaf litter composition drive community structure and functioning in freshwater ecosystems

What is it about?

Leaf litter is an important resource for several organisms in many aquatic systems. However, litter physicochemical differences may cause positive or negative impacts on these ecosystems. We investigate how different leaf litter species and their mixture affect decomposition, as well as the colonisation and survival of invertebrates in a natural microecosystem. We found that litter composition affected all the responses and most of the effect was due to differences between each litter species, not between single vs. mixture. Decomposition was fastest in litters with high specific leaf area (SLA), N:P ratios and N and P contents, and slowest in litters with high lignin content and C:N ratios. Chironomid survival was also greatest on high N, N:P and SLA litters.

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Why is it important?

Our results highlight the importance of considering leaf litter traits on the structure and functioning of freshwater ecosystems in future studies. More broadly, these results add to a growing consensus that functional traits of resource species, rather than the number of resource species, are essential to predicting resource–consumer interactions in food webs