Abstract

Decomposition rates were measured for four litter mixtures, including mixed species and ages, representing common herbaceous litter and canopy leaf litter in a Canadian deciduous forest. Quantitative changes were expressed as monthly exponential weight loss rates based on measurements from a 6-month and from a 16-month period. Monthly loss rates of herbaceous litter were up to 11 times those of mixed-age canopy leaf mixtures (calculated over 6 months), and the loss rate for mixed-age canopy leaf litter calculated over 6 months was more than 3 times that monitored over 16 months. Similarly, qualitative changes, estimated as monthly arithmetic organic loss and lignin gain rates, were generally more rapid for herbaceous litter than for canopy litter, and mixed-age canopy litter had a faster rate of change calculated over 6 months compared with that estimated over the 16-month period. Following the initial rapid release of nutrients, decomposition slows and becomes more dependent on the availability and distribution of decomposer organisms. We hypothesize that an undisturbed litter layer provides the microenvironments required by these decomposers and that a spatial variability in decomposition therefore arises only as a result of spatial variability in litter distribution or disturbance (e.g., by wind) of the litter layer.

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