Mesofauna community influences litter chemical trajectories during early-stage litter decay in compost

Decomposition of organic material is a fundamental ecosystem process, the rate of which is moderated by both litter chemistry and decomposer communities. Because litter chemistry changes throughout decomposition, we would expect the decomposer food web to interact with these changes in their basal resource to alter the trajectories of chemical changes during decay. To investigate how decomposer mesofauna influence patterns of litter chemical change throughout early stages of decay, we tracked mass loss, macro- and micronutrient elements, and fiber chemistry dynamics in Arizona sycamore (Platanus wrightii) leaves decomposed under optimal decay conditions in a biotically diverse compost pile. By using litterbags of two different mesh sizes to manipulate the mesofauna gaining access to the litter, we record how the complexity of the soil mesofauna community changes the trajectory of litter chemistry.