Species traits and decomposability predict water quality changes during litter submergence Xu Pan a,b,c, ⁎, Yunmei Ping a,b,c , Yukun Hu a,b,c , Yaobin Song d , Xiaodong Zhang a,b,c , Wei Li a,b,c , Lijuan Cui a,b,c, ⁎, Jan Vymazal e a Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, 100091 Beijing, China b Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Beijing 100091, China c Beijing Hanshiqiao National Wetland Ecosystem Research Station, Beijing 101309, China d Key Laboratory of Hangzhou City for Ecosystem Protection and Restoration, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310036, China e Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kymýcká 129, 165 21 Praha 6, Czech Republic HIGHLIGHTS • Plant litter significantly affected water quality during submergence. • Litter submergence effects depend on species identity, water source and oxy- gen injection. • Litter traits including decomposability might predict water quality changes. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT 0.4 0.6 0.8 0 2 4 6 8 10 EC 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 2 4 6 8 10 TN 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 2 4 6 8 10 TDS 0 2 4 6 0 2 4 6 8 10 NH 4 N 0 10 20 30 40 0 2 4 6 8 10 DO 1 0 1 0 2 4 6 8 10 NO 3 N 7 8 9 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 Time of litter submergence (in weeks) pH 0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0 2 4 6 8 10 Time of litter submergence (in weeks) NO 2 N abstract article info Article history: Received 2 October 2019 Received in revised form 15 November 2019 Accepted 15 November 2019 Available online xxxx Editor: Damia Barcelo Keywords: Constructed wetlands Litter decomposition Oxygen injection Plant trait Wetland ecosystem service Plant litter plays an important role in affecting the water quality of wetland ecosystems. However, it is unknown whether litter decomposability and species traits might predict water quality changes during litter submergence. Here, we conducted a greenhouse experiment to examine the effects of four submerged plant species, together with two water sources (sampled from tourism and protected areas), and oxygen injection treatments on the changes of eight water quality parameters during litter submergence. Our results showed that litter submergence significantly affected water quality changes, and the observed effects changed through time and differed between two water sources, between oxygen injection and the control treatments, and among different litter species. More- over, water electric conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), water total nitrogen (TN), ammonium and nitrite nitrogen increased with increasing initial litter total carbon (TC), TN and total phosphorus (TP), but water dissolved oxygen (DO) decreased with increasing litter TC, TN and TP. Moreover, water EC, TDS and TN increased with the final mass losses after 10-week submergence. These results indicated that species traits (including decomposability) might be good predictors for the water quality changes during litter submergence, and such a trait-based approach might be a promising tool to link plant species diversity via plant functional traits to water quality or other wetland ecosystem services. © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. Science of the Total Environment xxx (xxxx) xxx ⁎ Corresponding authors at: No. 1 Dongxiaofu, Xiangshan Road, Haidian District, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China. E-mail addresses: xu_pan_decom@126.com (X. Pan), wetlands108@126.com (L. Cui). STOTEN-135581; No of Pages 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135581 0048-9697/© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv Please cite this article as: X. Pan, Y. Ping, Y. Hu, et al., Species traits and decomposability predict water quality changes during litter submergence, Science of the Total Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135581