Reasons to not correct for leaching in TBI; Reply to Lind et al. (2022).

We believe that correcting for leaching in (terrestrial) litterbags studies such as the Tea Bag Index will result in more uncertainties than it resolves. This is mainly because leaching occurs in pulses upon changes in the environment and because leached material can still be mineralized after leaching. Furthermore, amount of material that potentially leaches from tea is comparable to other litter types. When correcting for leaching, it is key to be specific about the employed method, just like being specific about the study specific definition of decomposition.

Potential for Sulfate Reduction in Mangrove Forest Soils: Comparison between Two Dominant Species of the Americas.

Avicennia and Rhizophora are globally occurring mangrove genera with different traits that place them in different parts of the intertidal zone. It is generally accepted that the oxidizing capacity of Avicennia roots is larger than that of Rhizophora roots, which initiates more reduced conditions in the soil below the latter genus. We hypothesize that the more reduced conditions beneath Rhizophora stands lead to more active sulfate-reducing microbial communities compared to Avicennia stands. To test this hypothesis, we measured sulfate reduction traits in soil samples collected from neighboring Avicennia germinans and Rhizophora mangle stands at three different locations in southern Florida. The traits measured were sulfate reduction rates (SRR) in flow-through reactors containing undisturbed soil layers in the absence and presence of easily degradable carbon compounds, copy numbers of the dsrB gene, which is specific for sulfate-reducing microorganisms, and numbers of sulfate-reducing cells that are able to grow in liquid medium on a mixture of acetate, propionate and lactate as electron donors. At the tidal locations Port of the Islands and South Hutchinson Islands, steady state SRR, dsrB gene copy numbers and numbers of culturable cells were higher at the A. germinans than at the R. mangle stands, although not significantly for the numbers at Port of the Islands. At the non-tidal location North Hutchinson Island, results are mixed with respect to these sulfate reduction traits. At all locations, the fraction of culturable cells were significantly higher at the R. mangle than at the A. germinans stands. The dynamics of the initial SRR implied a more in situ active sulfate-reducing community at the intertidal R. mangle stands. It was concluded that in agreement with our hypothesis R. mangle stands accommodate a more active sulfate-reducing community than A. germinans stands, but only at the tidal locations. The differences between R. mangle and A. germinans stands were absent at the non-tidal, impounded location.

Nitrate ammonification in mangrove soils: a hidden source of nitrite?

Nitrate reduction is considered to be a minor microbial pathway in the oxidation of mangrove-derived organic matter due to a limited supply of nitrate in mangrove soils. At a limited availability of this electron acceptor compared to the supply of degradable carbon, nitrate ammonification is thought to be the preferential pathway of nitrate reduction. Mangrove forest mutually differ in their productivity, which may lead to different available carbon to nitrate ratios in their soil. Hence, nitrate ammonification is expected to be of more importance in high- compared to low-productive forests. The hypothesis was tested in flow-through reactors that contain undisturbed mangrove soils from high-productive Avicennia germinans and Rhizophora mangle forests in Florida and low-productive Avicennia marina forests in Saudi Arabia. Nitrate was undetectable in the soils from both regions. It was assumed that a legacy of nitrate ammonification would be reflected by a higher ammonium production from these soils upon the addition of nitrate. Unexpectedly, the soils from the low-productive forests in Saudi Arabia produced considerably more ammonium than the soils from the high-productive forests in Florida. Hence, other environmental factors than productivity must govern the selection of nitrate ammonification or denitrification. A rather intriguing observation was the 1:1 production of nitrite and ammonium during the consumption of nitrate, more or less independent from sampling region, location, sampling depth, mangrove species and from the absence or presence of additional degradable carbon. This 1:1 ratio points to a coupled production of ammonium and nitrite by one group of nitrate-reducing microorganisms. Such a production of nitrite will be hidden by the presence of active nitrite-reducing microorganisms under the nitrate-limited conditions of most mangrove forest soils.

Effects of nutrient enrichment on mangrove leaf litter decomposition.

Nutrient enrichment of mangroves, a common phenomenon along densely populated coastlines, may negatively affect mangrove ecosystems by modifying internal carbon and nutrient cycling. The decomposition of litter exerts a strong influence on these processes and is potentially modified by eutrophication. This study describes effects of N and P enrichment on litter decomposition rate and mineralisation/immobilisation patterns. By making use of reciprocal litter transplantation experiments among fertiliser treatments, it was tested if nutrient addition primarily acts on the primary producers (i.e. changes in litter quantity and quality) or on the microbial decomposers (i.e. changes in nutrient limitation for decomposition). Measurements were done in two mangrove forests where primary production was either limited by N or by P, which had been subject to at least 5 years of experimental N and P fertilisation. Results of this study indicated that decomposers were always N-limited regardless of the limitation of the primary producers. This leads to a differential nutrient limitation between decomposers and primary producers in sites where mangrove production was P-limited. In these sites, fertilisation with P caused litter quality to change, resulting in a higher decomposition rate. This study shows that direct effects of fertilisation on decomposition through an effect on decomposer nutrient availability might be non-significant, while the indirect effects through modifying litter quality might be quite substantial in mangroves. Our results show no indication that eutrophication increases decomposition without stimulating primary production. Therefore we do not expect a decline in carbon sequestration as a result of eutrophication of mangrove ecosystems.

Potential Activity, Size, and Structure of Sulfate-Reducing Microbial Communities in an Exposed, Grazed and a Sheltered, Non-Grazed Mangrove Stand at the Red Sea Coast.

After oxygen, sulfate is the most important oxidant for the oxidation of organic matter in mangrove forest soils. As sulfate reducers are poor competitors for common electron donors, their relative success depends mostly on the surplus of carbon that is left by aerobic organisms due to oxygen depletion. We therefore hypothesized that sulfate-cycling in mangrove soils is influenced by the size of net primary production, and hence negatively affected by mangrove degradation and exploitation, as well as by carbon-exporting waves. To test this, we compared quantitative and qualitative traits of sulfate-reducing communities in two Saudi-Arabian mangrove stands near Jeddah, where co-occurring differences in camel-grazing pressure and tidal exposure led to a markedly different stand height and hence primary production. Potential sulfate reduction rates measured in anoxic flow-through reactors in the absence and presence of additional carbon sources were significantly higher in the samples from the non-grazed site. Near the surface (0-2 cm depth), numbers of dsrB gene copies and culturable cells also tended to be higher in the non-grazed sites, while these differences were not detected in the sub-surface (4-6 cm depth). It was concluded that sulfate-reducing microbes at the surface were indeed repressed at the low-productive site as could be expected from our hypothesis. At both sites, sulfate reduction rates as well as numbers of the dsrB gene copies and viable cells increased with depth suggesting repression of sulfate reduction near the surface in both irrespective of production level. Additionally, sequence analysis of DNA bands obtained from DGGE gels based on the dsrB gene, showed a clear difference in dominance of sulfate-reducing genera belonging to the Deltaproteobacteria and the Firmicutes between sampling sites and depths.