The afterlife of plant matter plays a significant role in ecosystems, as a key processor and provider of key nutrients. The rate of decomposition for leaf litter, among other plant matter, heavily ...

When plants or parts of them die, billions of small creatures help to break down the organic material. Next to microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, also some soil-living invertebrates seem to be ...

Alan Mosele Tonin, Luiz Ubiratan Hepp and José Francisco Gonçalves Jr. The decomposition of plant litter plays a fundamental role in the cycling of carbon and nutrients and is driven by complex ...

Radiological damage to microbes near the site of the Chernobyl disaster has slowed the decomposition of fallen leaves and other plant matter in the area, according to a study just published in the ...

Shuang-Li Hou, Grégoire T. Freschet, Jun-Jie Yang, Yun-Hai Zhang, Jiang-Xia Yin, Yan-Yu Hu, Hai-Wei Wei, Xing-Guo Han, Xiao-Tao Lü https://www.jstor.org/stable ...

Researchers say they have discovered the conditions that determine whether deep soil acts as a source of carbon emissions, releasing heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, or as a sink, ...

Leave grass clippings on the lawn -If you mow frequently enough (one of the best ways to improve lawn health is to mow frequently), the clippings will just sift into the lawn. They also provide a ...