Decomposition rates of four litter types along coastal gradients in Everglades National Park (FCE LTER), Florida, USA: 2020-2021

Leaf litter, of variable quality, was deployed along freshwater-to-marine gradients to investigate the drivers of litter breakdown in the Florida Coastal Everglades. Sea-level rise provides both stressors and subsidies to microbial communities that break down litter, and is also causing shifts in the vegetation producing litter, changing the initial quality of litter being deposited in coastal wetlands. The goal of this project was to understand the complex relationship between marine stressors and subsidies, by performing a reciprocal transplant of litter. Litter from each major vegetation species along the freshwater to marine gradient were deployed at sites in freshwater, the ecotone, mangrove forest, and in Florida Bay. This reciprocal transplant of different qualities of leaf litter into novel environments across a gradient of salinity and phosphorus will give insights into the effects of litter carbon quality, littery chemistry, microbial productivity of decomposers, and environmental chemistry as drivers of the breakdown of leaf litter.