Experiments

Experiment 293 - Testing the Gadgil effect across vegetation types and water treatments

We propose research to investigate how interactions between ectomycorrhizal (EM) and saprotrophic fungal communities affect organic matter decomposition. The suppression of saprotrophic fungi and subsequent retardation of organic matter decomposition by ectomycorrhizal fungi has been coined the ???Gadgil effect???. To date, the direction and magnitude of this effect has been shown to vary across study systems and its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. To examine the environmental context dependency of the Gadgil effect , we propose to study work in adjacent pine and oak sites at Cedar Creek LTER. In each forest type, a set of trenched plots will be established to severe root connections and therefore carbon allocation to EM fungi. In addition to the trenching treatment, we will also employ a water addition treatment (in a full factorial design) to explicitly test the effect of water reduction as a potential underlying mechanism of the Gadgil effect. Litter bags will be placed into plots with and without trenching to assess the changes in decomposition over a 15 month period.

Methods for e293

Datasets