Chionochloa rubra leaf litter decomposition at Mt Tongariro, New Zealand

Concept: Decomposition rates are an important component of carbon sequestration rates in soils, potentially mitigating future climate change. Here we aim to better understand decomposition’s relationship with temperature in natural conditions.
Structure: In snow-tussock grassland dominated by Chionochloa rubra var. rubra on Mount Tongariro, Tongariro National Park, New Zealand, we measured decomposition of Chionochloa leaf litter along an ~ 700 m altitudinal gradient, as a space-for-temperature experiment, representing 4.2ºC of warming. For litter, we haphazardly collected attached, but achlorophyllous leaves, which were cut into 5 cm long segments and pooled per site. We examined decomposition rates in a full reciprocal translocation of litter bags between 8 plots as both the origin of 8 litter types and the 8 destinations of plating out of litter bags, over 4 years using 6 replicates. Litter decomposition bags, 20 cm x 25 cm in size, were of black nylon rectangular mesh with a pore si...,  Decomposition is reported as change in dry weight of litter samples sampled from 8 sites (i.e., source), and plated out into each of the same 8 sites (i.e., destination), over one of 1 - 4 years, with 6 replicates.
Data are presented with source, destination and year codes., Excel.