abstract the impact of rainfall and light interception by litter on maintenance of surface soil water content is determined in an arid rangeland in khabr national park in south-east of iran. litter weight sampling is done by 90 square plots, each 1 m2, that are randomly placed within site. after determining the intensity of a typical storm of the region (20 mm/h), the rainfall duration required...

Many studies in ecosystem ecology argue for strong control of litter quality over nitrogen (N) cycling. We developed a model for temperate grasslands to test the importance of litter quality in decomposition for N and phosphorus (P) cycling based on the following premises. First, terrestrial N and P cycling differ fundamentally because N is a structural component of the soil organic matter (SOM...

Litter moisture content has been related to ammonia, dust and odour emissions as well as bird health and welfare. Improved understanding of the water holding properties of poultry litter as well as water additions to litter and evaporation from litter will contribute to improved litter moisture management during the meat chicken grow-out. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how manageme...

Objective(s): The effect of litter size and suckling intensity on the expression of KiSS-1 mRNA in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) of rats were evaluated. Materials and Methods: Thirty two pregnant and four non-lactating ovariectomized (as control group) rats were used in this experiment. Lactating rats were allotted to eight equal groups. In three groups, litter size was adjusted to 5, 10, or 15 pup...

Plant litter is an indispensable component of constructed wetlands, but how the submergence of plant litter affects their ecosystem functions and services, such as water purification, is still unclear. Moreover, it is also unclear whether the effects of plant litter submergence depend on other factors such as the duration of litter submergence, water source or litter species identity. Here we c...

Resource availability is an important ecosystem attribute that can influence species distributions and ecosystem processes. We manipulated the quantity of leaf litter, a critical resource in streams, in a replicated field experiment to test whether: 1) greater litter quantity promotes microbial leaf decomposition (through greater microbial inoculum potential), and 2) reduced litter quantity enh...

Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) exposure in the course of litter decomposition may have a direct effect on decomposition rates via changing states of photodegradation or decomposer constitution in litter while UV-B exposure during growth periods may alter chemical compositions and physical properties of plants. Consequently, these changes will indirectly affect subsequent litter decomposition processes in...

the objective of this study was to evaluate genetic and phenotypic parameters for some reproductive traits of black bengal does. genetic parameters were estimated by residual maximum likelihood procedure, fitting an animal model ignoring maternal genetic or permanent environmental effects. the least-squares means of litter size at birth (lsb), litter size at weaning (lsw), litter weight at birt...

Question: What are the physical and chemical effects of plant litter on annual grassland community composition, aboveground net primary production (ANPP), and density? Location: California annual grassland. Methods: We manipulated litter and light levels independently and in concert. Litter removal and litter addition treatments tested both the physical and chemical impacts of litter’s presence...

The effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition on litter decomposition are poorly understood in Tibetan alpine meadows. Leaf litter was collected from plots within a factorial N × P addition experiment and allowed to decompose over 708 days in an unfertilized plot to determine the effects of N and/or P addition on litter decomposition. Results showed that nutrient addition significantl...