TY  - JOUR
A1  - Englmeier, Jana
A1  - Mitesser, Oliver
A1  - Benbow, M. Eric
A1  - Hothorn, Torsten
A1  - von Hoermann, Christian
A1  - Benjamin, Caryl
A1  - Fricke, Ute
A1  - Ganuza, Cristina
A1  - Haensel, Maria
A1  - Redlich, Sarah
A1  - Riebl, Rebekka
A1  - Rojas Botero, Sandra
A1  - Rummler, Thomas
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Stengel, Elisa
A1  - Tobisch, Cynthia
A1  - Uhler, Johannes
A1  - Uphus, Lars
A1  - Zhang, Jie
A1  - Müller, Jörg
T1  - Diverse effects of climate, land use, and insects on dung and carrion decomposition
JF  - Ecosystems
N2  - Land-use intensification and climate change threaten ecosystem functions. A fundamental, yet often overlooked, function is decomposition of necromass. The direct and indirect anthropogenic effects on decomposition, however, are poorly understood. We measured decomposition of two contrasting types of necromass, rat carrion and bison dung, on 179 study sites in Central Europe across an elevational climate gradient of 168–1122 m a.s.l. and within both local and regional land uses. Local land-use types included forest, grassland, arable fields, and settlements and were embedded in three regional land-use types (near-natural, agricultural, and urban). The effects of insects on decomposition were quantified by experimental exclusion, while controlling for removal by vertebrates. We used generalized additive mixed models to evaluate dung weight loss and carrion decay rate along elevation and across regional and local land-use types. We observed a unimodal relationship of dung decomposition with elevation, where greatest weight loss occurred between 600 and 700 m, but no effects of local temperature, land use, or insects. In contrast to dung, carrion decomposition was continuously faster with both increasing elevation and local temperature. Carrion reached the final decomposition stage six days earlier when insect access was allowed, and this did not depend on land-use effect. Our experiment identified different major drivers of decomposition on each necromass form. The results show that dung and carrion decomposition are rather robust to local and regional land use, but future climate change and decline of insects could alter decomposition processes and the self-regulation of ecosystems.
KW  - decay
KW  - ecosystem function
KW  - global change
KW  - land-use intensification
KW  - necrobiome
KW  - urbanization
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-325064
SN  - 1432-9840
VL  - 26
IS  - 2
ER  -