Leaf Litter Meta Analysis

We searched the literature for the leaf litter decomposition constants (<em>k</em>) and C:N ratios of the tree species found at our sites. We conducted these searches in <em>Web of Science</em> and <em>Google Scholar </em>using the keywords such as “litter,” “decomposition,” “decay,” and “C:N,” as well as the latin and common names for each tree species. We also extracted decomposition constants and C:N ratios from the Long-Term Inter-site Decomposition Experiment Team (LIDET; Harmon et al. 2009) and the TRY Plant Trait Database (Kattge et al. 2020). We extracted data from graphs using WebPlotDigitizer when actual numbers were not available in the text or tables. For studies that reported mass loss over time, but not the k value, we used R to estimate the decomposition constant by fitting a single exponential decay function to the data. C:N mass ratios were calculated manually if they were not directly reported.