The chemical complexity of decomposing plant litter is a central feature shaping the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle, but explanations of the origin of this complexity remain contentious. Here, we ask: How does litter chemistry change during decomposition, and what roles do decomposers play in these changes? During a long-term (730 days) litter decomposition experiment, we tracked concurrent chang...

Biogeosciences Discussions This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Biogeosciences (BG). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in BG if available. Abstract In initial ecosystems concentrations of all macro-and micronutrients can be considered as extremely low. Plant litter therefore strongly influences the development of a degraders' food web and is an important so...

Regulatory mechanisms of soil respiratory carbon (C) release induced by substrates (i.e., plant derived substrates) are critical for predicting ecosystem responses to climate change, but the mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we sampled soils from a long-term field manipulative experiment and conducted a laboratory incubation to explore the role of substrate supply in regulating...

[1] Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted during plant litter decomposition, and such VOCs can have wide‐ranging impacts on atmospheric chemistry, terrestrial biogeochemistry, and soil ecology. However, we currently have a limited understanding of the relative importance of biotic versus abiotic sources of these VOCs and whether distinct types of litter emit different types and quantiti...

The loss of species is known to have significant effects on ecosystem functioning, but only recently has it been recognized that species loss might rival the effects of other forms of environmental change on ecosystem processes. There is a need for experimental studies that explicitly manipulate species richness and environmental factors concurrently to determine their relative impacts on key e...

The effect of litter on seedling establishment can influence species richness in plant communities. The effect of litter depends on amount, and also on litter type, but relatively little is known about the species-specific effects of litter. We conducted a factorial greenhouse experiment to examine the effect of litter type, using two woody species that commonly co-occur in boreonemoral forest-...

Plant chemical composition and the soil community are known to influence litter and soil organic matter decomposition. Although these two factors are likely to interact, their mechanisms and outcomes of interaction are not well understood. Studies of their interactive effects are rare and usually focus on carbon dynamics of litter, while nutrient dynamics in the underlying soil have been ignore...

The radiolabeled leucine incorporation technique for quantifying rates of bacterial production has increased in popularity since its original description for bacterioplankton communities. Prior studies addressing incorporation conditions (e.g., substrate saturation) for bacterial communities in other habitats, such as decaying plant litter, have reported a wide range of final leucine concentrat...

Succession of newly created landscapes induces profound changes in plant litter supplied to streams. Grasses dominate inputs into open-land streams, whereas tree litter is predominant in forested streams. We set out to elucidate whether the activity and structure of microbial communities on decomposing leaves are determined by litter quality (i.e., grass or tree leaves colonized) or whether cha...

Globally, many terrestrial ecosystems are experiencing a rapid loss of biodiversity. Continued improvements in our understanding of interrelationships between plant diversity and soil microbes are critical to address the concern over the consequences of the decline in biodiversity on ecosystem functioning and services. By removing forbs, or grasses, or, to an extreme scenario, both forbs and gr...