Litter decomposition is a fundamental ecosystem process in which breakdown and decay of plant detritus releases carbon and nutrients. Invasive exotic plants may produce litter that differs from native plant litter in quality and quantity. Such differences may impact litter decomposition and soil respiration in ways that depend on whether exotic and native plant litters decompose in mixtures. Ho...

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-...

The present study was carried out to estimate (co)variance components and genetic parameters for some productivity traits of Baluchi ewes. The data were collected during a 31 year period (1984-2014) at the experimental breeding station of Baluchi sheep, which is located in north-east of Mashhad, Iran. The analysis was based on 14030 records of lambs and 4371 records of ewes. Investigated traits...

the purpose of this research was to evaluate the effects of litter chemical amendments on litter quality, broiler performance and carcass lesions (breast blisters, foot pad lesions and hock burns). in a 2×4 factorial experiment with 576 commercial broiler chicks (arian), the effect of two types of litter materials and three amendments were investigated using a completely randomized design with ...

Canopy interception, throughfall, stemflow, and runoff have received considerable attention during the study of water balance and hydrological processes in forested ecosystems. Past research has either neglected or underestimated the role of hydrological functions of litter layers, although some studies have considered the impact of various characteristics of rainfall and litter on litter inter...

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...

Although the effect of litter mixture on decomposition has been well documented, few studies have examined the relationships between richness and relative abundance of leaf species in litter mixture and changes in universal fungal communities during the decomposition process in temperate forests. In this study, we used the litterbag method and included three leaf litter species, i.e., aspen (Po...

Litterfall is the primary source of carbon and nutrients that determine soil fertility in forest ecosystems. Most current studies have focused on foliar litter, but the seasonal dynamics and allometric scaling relationships among different litter components (e.g., foliar litter, woody litter, reproductive litter, and epiphytic litter) are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the litter prod...

specific features of the structure of the ground litter invertebrate community in forest belt ecosystems in the ukrainian steppe zone have been considered. for 14 years invertebrate fauna of the litter of 176 forest belt sites with different composition has been studied with the aid of soil traps. the main characteristics of litter invertebrate communities (total population, a number of species...

Global changes such as increasing CO2, rising temperature, and land-use change are likely to drive shifts in litter inputs to forest floors, but the effects of such changes on litter decomposition remain largely unknown. We initiated a litter manipulation experiment to test the response of litter decomposition to litter removal/addition in three successional forests in southern China, namely ma...