Litter quality is often considered the main driver of rates of decomposition. Litter decomposes faster in its home environment than in any other environment, which is called the home-field advantage (HFA). However, evidence for this phenomenon has not been universal. In addition, litter mixtures of different species can induce a non-additive effect (NAE) on decomposition processes. However, the...

BACKGROUND Litter decomposition greatly influences soil structure, nutrient content and carbon sequestration, but how litter decomposition is affected by climate change is still not well understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A field experiment with increased temperature and nitrogen (N) addition was established in April 2007 to examine the effects of experimental warming, N addition and ...

This paperlooks at litter cleanup efforts and associated costs in Michigan, and attempts to determine the proportion of litter composed of discarded beverage containers. A few studies have previously attempted to estimate cost savings from the reduced beverage container litter resulting from container deposit programs. However, the previous studies have looked only at roadway litter. Roadway li...

The ®rst stage of leaf litter decomposition of two eucalyptus hybrids and Acacia auriculiformis was studied in laboratory experiments where the decaying leaves were leached with water. Although the litter of both the species were characterized by a high content of soluble compounds, little soluble organic matter of acacia litter was recovered in litter leachates. By contrast, soluble organic ma...

Poultry litter provides a rich source of nutrients for perennial forages, but the usual practice of surface-applying litter to pastures can degrade water quality by allowing nutrients to be transported from fields in surface runoff, while much of the NH4-N volatilizes. Incorporating litter into the soil can minimize such problems in tilled systems, but has not been used for perennial forage sys...

The accumulation of litter in marine and coastal environments is a major threat to marine life. Data on marine litter in the gastrointestinal tract of stranded loggerhead turtles, Caretta caretta, found along the Portuguese continental coast was presented. Out of the 95 analysed loggerheads, litter was present in 56 individuals (59.0%) and most had less than 10 litter items (76.8%) and less tha...

Poultry litter is a mixture of bedding materials and enteric bacteria excreted by chickens, and it is typically reused for multiple growth cycles in commercial broiler production. Thus, bacteria can be transmitted from one growth cycle to the next via litter. However, it remains poorly understood how litter reuse affects development and composition of chicken gut microbiota. In this study, the ...

Together, climate and litter quality strongly regulate decomposition rates. Although these two factors and their interaction have been studied across species in continent-scale experiments, few researchers have studied how labile and recalcitrant compounds interact to influence decomposition, or the climate sensitivity of decomposition, within a litter type. Over a period of 3 yr, we studied th...

Litter decomposition is a keystone ecosystem process impacting nutrient cycling and productivity, soil properties, and the terrestrial carbon (C) balance, but the factors regulating decomposition rate are still poorly understood. Traditional models assume that the rate is controlled by litter quality, relying on parameters such as lignin content as predictors. However, a strong correlation has ...

Understanding the response mechanisms of litter respiration to soil moisture in water-limited semi-arid regions is of vital importance to better understanding the interplay between ecological processes and the local carbon cycle. In situ soil respiration was monitored during 2010-2012 under various conditions (normal litter, no litter, and double litter treatments) in a 30-year-old artificial b...