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 ...

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...

the present study investigates the possibility of enriching adult artemia franciscana with singular or combined administration of pediococcus acidilactici and fructooligosaccharide (fos). the experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four treatments, including synbiotic, p. acidilactici +fos (t1), probiotic, p. acidilactici (t2), prebiotic, fos (t3) and control (t4). to ev...

Elevated atmospheric CO2 can change foliar tissue chemistry. This alters leaf litter palatability to macroinvertebrate detritivores with consequences for decomposition, nutrient turnover, and food-web structure. Currently there is no consensus on the link between CO2 enrichment, litter chemistry, and macroinvertebrate-mediated leaf decomposition. To identify any unifying mechanisms, we presente...

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...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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...