Contribution of meso- and macro-fauna to nitrogen release in needle litter decomposition of Abies faxoniana during the freeze-thaw period

The litterbags with different mesh sizes (0.125, 1.000 and 3.000 mm) were placed on the forest floor in October 2010, and collected after each of the three stages in the freeze-thaw season (OF: the onset of freezing stage; DF: the deeply frozen stage; and TS: the thawing stage). Over the whole freeze-thaw period, 14.01% ± 1.26, 20.64% ± 1.61 and 30.89% ± 0.70 of N released from fir litter in the litterbags with 0.125, 1.000 and 3.000 mm, respectively. The contributions of meso- and macro-fauna to N releases were 21.45% ± 3.80 and 33.18% ± 5.39, respectively. Macro-fauna contributed more to N releases than meso-fauna regardless of decomposition stages in the freeze-thaw period. Compared with other stages in the freeze-thaw period, higher contributions of both macro- and meso-fauna were observed at DF stage, and the lower contributions at TS stage. The results suggested that soil fauna have a great contribution to N releases during litter decomposition in the freeze-thaw period, but the contribution was significantly affected by temperature dynamics and the body size of soil fauna.