Authors
Friederike Lang, Jörg Prietzel, Frank Hagedorn, Klaus Kaiser, Stefanie Schulz, Mathias Mayer, Lars Vesterdal, Jürgen Bauhus, Maï Bergmann, Sebastian Bibinger, Martin I Bidartondo, Jingxuan Olivia Chen, Philipp de Jong, Trung Hieu Doan, Simon Haberstroh, Jonas Hahn, Peter Hartmann, Anis Mahmud Khokon, Martin Kohler, Laura M Suz, Ina C Meier, Richard Neumann, Heinke Paulsen, Heike Puhlmann, Helmer Schack-Kirchner, Stefan Scheu, Lexie Schilling, Patrick Schleppi, Michael Schloter, Kai Schwärzel, Kenton P Stutz, Gabriela Villalba, Melissa Wannenmacher, Markus Weiler, Nicole Wellbrock, Christiane Werner, Jörg Niederberger
Published in
Global change biology. Volume 32. Issue 8. Pages e71033.
Abstract
The forest floor (FF) plays a key role in carbon, nutrient, and water cycling. It is the biologically most active compartment of forest soils, highly responsive to environmental conditions. Yet, its response to current changes in environmental conditions and forest management is understudied. Temperate forests are among the best studied ecosystems globally, providing the necessary ecological and biogeochemical background information to assess FF changes. Here, we focus on identifying existing knowledge and gaps in our understanding of the functioning of the FF. Interactions between FF biota and abiotic FF components show multifactorial dependencies with environmental conditions and drive FF turnover. Vice versa, the turnover of FF regulates carbon, nutrient, and water cycling. With slow litter decomposition and limited bioturbation, organic matter accumulates, nutrients cycle tightly within the FF, and water passes through this layer partly along preferential pathways. With rapid litter decomposition and intense bioturbation, FF accumulation is little, the mineral soil is the main nexus for plant nutrient uptake and organic matter transformation, and water infiltrates the mineral soil more homogeneously. The interconnectedness with the adjacent ecosystem compartments is a crucial feature of the FF, feeding back to its functioning and making it a central hub of forest processes. The FF morphology reflects these processes and therefore has untapped potential as an indicator of soil and ecosystem health. Under forest change, the FF might lose its functionality, with negative impacts on nutrient provision, water storage, and carbon sequestration. Consequences for forest growth could be strong and even detrimental. Hence, improved knowledge of FF characteristics and their linkages to mineral soils and aboveground ecosystem compartments is crucial for assessing forest resilience to progressing environmental changes.
PMID:
42610377
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Aug 2026.
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