An isopod, well-adapted to the harsh conditions of arid-lands, crawls on the desert floor in search of plant litter. New study reveals that in arid ecosystems, larger arthropods such as termites and ...

Tropical alpine peatlands are important carbon reservoirs and are a critical component of local hydrological cycles. In high elevation peatlands slow decomposition rates result from a nutrient-poor ...

Organic carbon decomposition in soil varies significantly and in regional patterns, driven in part by factors such as soil minerals and microbial properties that have been underrepresented in carbon ...

Integrating big data and a coordinated global field experiment, researchers have developed a model that can predict the decomposition rate of organic matter in rivers worldwide. The global model ...

Introduced animals can indirectly affect decomposers through trophic cascades and habitat modifications, but whether their effects are strong enough to influence both the structure and function of ...

Soil stores more carbon than Earth’s atmosphere and plants combined, which makes the speed of soil carbon’s decomposition an ...

Plastic is one of humanity's most useful inventions... and one of its most persistent problems. Plastic has become so ingrained in modern life that it's easy to forget how long it lingers once tossed ...