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Microbial Nitrogen Limitation Increases Decomposition, Joseph M. Craine, Carl Morrow, Noah Fierer
Microbial Nitrogen Limitation Increases Decomposition, Joseph M. Craine, Carl Morrow, Noah Fierer
Dartmouth Scholarship
With anthropogenic nutrient inputs to ecosystems increasing globally, there are long-standing, fundamental questions about the role of nutrients in the decomposition of organic matter. We tested the effects of exogenous nitrogen and phosphorus inputs on litter decomposition across a broad suite of litter and soil types. In one experiment, C mineralization was compared across a wide array of plants individually added to a single soil, while in the second, C mineralization from a single substrate was compared across 50 soils. Counter to basic stoichiometric decomposition theory, low N availability can increase litter decomposition as microbes use labile substrates to acquire …