Soil biota accelerate decomposition in high-elevation forests by specializing in the breakdown of litter produced by the plant species above them

1. There is mounting evidence that leaf litter typically decomposes more rapidly beneath the plant species it derived from than beneath the different plant species, which has been called home-field advantage (HFA). It has been suggested that this HFA results from the local adaptation of soil communities to decompose the litter that they encounter most often, which probably comes from the plant species above them. 2. To test this hypothesis and to investigate how HFA varies over time and in relation to litter quality, we performed the first detailed assessment of HFA in relation to litter decomposition. We monitored decomposition over time in two reciprocal litter transplant experiments involving three high-elevation...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Journal of Ecology, San Juan Mountains, functional redundancy, home-field advantage, litter decomposition, All tags... reciprocal transplant, soil biodiversity, sub-alpine forest, Fewer tags