In temperate portions of North America, some bats that remain active during winter undergo short periods of hibernation below leaf litter on the forest floor during episodes of below-freezing weather. These winter roosts may provide above-freezing conditions, but the thermal conditions under leaf litter are unclear. Further, little is known of the relationship between temperatures under litter ...

Leaf litter represents an important link between tree community composition, forest productivity and biomass, and ecosystem processes. In forests, the spatial distribution of trees and species-specific differences in leaf litter production and quality are likely to cause spatial heterogeneity in nutrient returns to the forest floor and, therefore, in the redistribution of soil nutrients. Using ...

Beasley Lake was assessed monthly in 2005 for biological impairment from 17 historic and current-use pesticides in water and leaf litter using Hyalella azteca (Saussure). Sixteen pesticides were detected in both water and leaf litter with peak detections in spring and summer. Detections ranged from 1-125 ng L(-1) in water and 1-539 ng g(-1) OC in leaf litter. Ten-day H. azteca survival and grow...

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...

Decomposing litter in forest ecosystems supplies nutrients to plants, carbon to heterotrophic soil microorganisms and is a large source of CO2 to the atmosphere. Despite its essential role in carbon and nutrient cycling, the temperature sensitivity of leaf litter decay in tropical forest ecosystems remains poorly resolved, especially in tropical montane wet forests where the warming trend may b...

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...

This work tested the hypothesis that ectomycorrhizas (EM) of Dicymbe corymbosa alter leaf-litter decomposition and residual litter quality in tropical forests of Guyana. Mass loss of leaf litter in litter bags was determined on three occasions, in two experiments, during a 12-month period. Paired root-exclusion plots were located randomly within a D. corymbosa forest. Both D. corymbosa and mixe...

Herbivore effects on leaf litter can have a strong impact on ecosystem nutrient cycling. Although such effects are well described for insect herbivory, research on the impacts of browsing by mammalian herbivores on leaf litter dynamics and nutrient cycling has been more limited, particularly at the level of the individual plant. Clipping treatments (66% shoot removal twice, plus unclipped) were...

By assessing current leaf litter nutrient dynamics, we may be able to predict responses of nutrient cycling in tropical ecosystems to future environmental change. The goal of this study was to assess whether nutrient cycling is related to seasonal variation in rainfall in a wet tropical forest. We examined leaf litter of an old-growth tropical rain forest in N.E. Costa Rica over a 4-year period...

Most studies of forest litter dynamics examine the biochemical characteristics and decomposition of leaf litter, but fine roots are also a large source of litter in forests. We quantified the concentrations of eight biochemical fractions and nitrogen (N) in leaf litter and fine roots at four sugar maple (Acer saccharum)-dominated hardwood forests in the north-central United States. We combined ...