Environmental factors and traits that drive plant litter decomposition do not determine home-field advantage effects

The ‘home-field advantage’ (HFA) hypothesis predicts that plant litter is decomposed faster than expected underneath the plant from which it originates (‘home’) than underneath other plants (‘away’), because decomposer communities are specialized to break down litter from the plants they associate with. However, empirical evidence shows that the occurrence of HFA is highly variable, and the reasons for this are little understood. In our study we progress our understanding by investigating whether HFA is stronger for more recalcitrant litter types and under colder conditions and how soil properties and plant functional traits affect the magnitude and direction of HFA. In subarctic tundra in northern Sweden we set up a reciprocal transplant litter decomposition experiment along an elevational gradient where three highly contrasting vegetation types (heath, meadow and Salix) occur at all elevations, and where temperature decreases strongly with elevation. In this study, we used a litter ba...