Biochemical and structural controls on the decomposition dynamics of boreal upland forest moss tissues

Philben, Michael; Butler, Sara; Billings, Sharon A.; Benner, Ronald; Edwards, Kate A.; Ziegler, Susan E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6731-2018

Articles | Volume 15, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6731-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6731-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 21

Research article

|

13 Nov 2018

Research article |

| 13 Nov 2018

Biochemical and structural controls on the decomposition dynamics of boreal upland forest moss tissues

Michael Philben, Sara Butler, Sharon A. Billings, Ronald Benner, Kate A. Edwards, and Susan E. Ziegler

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Final revised paper (published on 13 Nov 2018)
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Preprint (discussion started on 21 Jun 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of bg-2018-290', Anonymous Referee #1, 03 Jul 2018
- AC1: 'Response to reviewer 1's comments', Michael Philben, 06 Sep 2018
RC2: 'bg-2018-290', Anonymous Referee #2, 27 Jul 2018
- AC2: 'Response to reviewer 2's comments', Michael Philben, 06 Sep 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (26 Sep 2018) by Frank Hagedorn

AR by Anna Mirena Feist-Polner on behalf of the Authors (15 Oct 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (20 Oct 2018) by Frank Hagedorn

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Short summary

We explored the relationship between chemical composition and the temperature sensitivity of moss decomposition using 959-day lab incubations. Mass loss was low despite the predominance of carbohydrates, indicating the persistence of labile C. Scanning electron microscopy revealed little change in the moss cell-wall structure. These results suggest that the moss cell-wall matrix protects labile C from decomposition, contributing to the globally important stocks of moss-derived C.