Phosphorus (P) in runoff from pastures amended with poultry litter may be a significant contributor to eutrophication of lakes and streams in Georgia and other areas in the southeastern United States. The objectives of this research were to determine the effects of litter application rate and initial runoff timing on the long-term loss of P in runoff from surface-applied poultry litter and to d...

Rates of litter decomposition in dryland ecosystems are consistently underestimated by decomposition models driven by temperature, moisture, and litter chemistry. The most common explanation for this pattern is that ultraviolet radiation (UV) increases decomposition through photodegradation of the litter lignin fraction. Alternatively, UV could increase decomposition through effects on microbia...

Plant leaf litter is an important source of soil chemicals that are essential for the ecosystem and changes in leaf litter chemical traits during decomposition will determine the availability of multiple chemical elements recycling in the ecosystem. However, it is unclear whether the changes in litter chemical traits during decomposition and their similarities across species can be predicted, r...

A common practice in the commercial broiler industry is to reuse litter over multiple broiler flocks. Over time the bacterial populations in the reused litter increases but how those organisms are spatially distributed throughout the litter bed is unclear. Therefore, the goal of this project was to investigate the distribution of bacteria at three different depths of litter. Litter samples were...

The effects of postnatal litter size on preand postweaning growth, daughter 's litter size and rebreeding performance of the dam were examined in rats that had undergone 14 generations of selection for rate (LG) or efficiency (LE) of postweaning protein gain followed by relaxed selection, and in a randomly selected control line (C). Data came from generations 23 to 24 (standardized litters) and...

Global climate change has generally modified net primary production (NPP) which leads to increasing litter inputs in some ecosystems. Therefore, assessing the impacts of increasing litter inputs on soil nutrients, plant growth and ecological carbon (C) : nitrogen (N) : phosphorus (P) stoichiometry is critical for an understanding of C, N and P cycling and their feedback processes to climate cha...

This study aims to evaluate the impacts of changes in litter quantity under simulated N deposition on litter decomposition, CO2 release, and soil C loss potential in a larch plantation in Northeast China. We conducted a laboratory incubation experiment using soil and litter collected from control and N addition (100 kg ha-1 year-1 for 10 years) plots. Different quantities of litter (0, 1, 2 and...

Litter quality parameters such as nitrogen and lignin content correlate with decomposition rates at coarse scales, but finescale mechanisms driving litter decomposition have proven more difficult to generalize. One potentially important driver of decomposition is the activity of extracellular enzymes that catalyze the degradation of complex compounds present in litter. To address the importance...

Litter quality and diversity are major factors structuring decomposer communities. However, little is known on the relationship between litter quality and the community structure of soil protists in tropical forests. We analyzed the diversity, density, and community structure of a major group of soil protists of tropical montane rainforests, that is, testate amoebae. Litterbags containing pure ...

Recent studies suggest the long-standing discrepancy between measured and modeled leaf litter decomposition in drylands is, in part, the result of a unique combination of abiotic drivers that include high soil surface temperature and radiant energy levels and soil-litter mixing. Temperature and radiant energy effects on litter decomposition have been widely documented. However, under field cond...