Spatial changes in soil stable isotopic composition in response to carrion decomposition

Keenan, Sarah W.; Schaeffer, Sean M.; DeBruyn, Jennifer M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3929-2019

Articles | Volume 16, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3929-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3929-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 19

Research article

|

11 Oct 2019

Research article |

| 11 Oct 2019

Spatial changes in soil stable isotopic composition in response to carrion decomposition

Sarah W. Keenan, Sean M. Schaeffer, and Jennifer M. DeBruyn

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Oct 2019)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 02 Jan 2019)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Manuscript comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 23 Jan 2019
- AC1: 'Response to Reviewer #1 Comments', Sarah Keenan, 20 Aug 2019
RC2: 'Review Keenan et al, Biogeosciences', Lukas Kohl, 16 Jul 2019
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer #2 comments', Sarah Keenan, 20 Aug 2019
RC5: 'Keenan et al. review', Michael Philben, 02 Aug 2019
- AC3: 'Response to Reviewer #3 comments', Sarah Keenan, 20 Aug 2019

Peer-review completion

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

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (31 Aug 2019) by Silvio Pantoja

AR by Sarah Keenan on behalf of the Authors (06 Sep 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (14 Sep 2019) by Silvio Pantoja

AR by Sarah Keenan on behalf of the Authors (15 Sep 2019)

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Short summary

Decaying animals perturb soil biogeochemical cycles. Stable δ¹⁵N composition, which reflects the sum of all biogeochemical processes, increases during decay and persists for years. Enrichment following beaver decay persisted after at least 1 year, and was evident up to 10 cm depth and 60 cm from the decaying animals, beyond where soils were visibly impacted by decomposition. Nutrients sourced from decaying animals represent an integral and long–lived component of nitrogen cycling in soils.