Seasonality as a driving factor of decomposition pathways in both meadows and forests: an exploration across a gradient of climate in Oregon

Soil food webs process the majority of terrestrial carbon, and influence overall ecosystem function. A primary distinction among soil food webs is based on fungal versus bacterial pathways of decomposition; these lead to fundamentally different soil function, and are expected to differ in dominance between meadows and forests. This assumption is the basis of ecological hypotheses, yet conclusive studies to test this assumption are lacking. To examine climatic factors which might relate to this property of soil food webs, I selected six sites along an Oregon (USA) transect of climate and productivity with paired forests and meadows. I compared biomass of active and total fungi and bacteria in meadows and forests throughout the year. Ratios of total fungal to total bacterial biomass are higher in forests than in meadows (p = 0.01), but also vary strongly by season ( p