Simplified, in early stages of decomposition, non-lignified compartments of litter are decomposed as they are easily accessible to microorganisms (Berg and McClaugherty 2008).
Litter and two SOM pool compartments, each of which has a different decomposition rate, were considered.
Soil respiration depends on the C stocks in the different soil compartments (i.e. litter, humus and charcoal), their turnover rates and environmental conditions (i.e. soil water availability and temperature).
Ecosystem carbon storage is divided into five compartments; foliage, stem, root, litter, and mineral soil.
Each mesocosm comprised three compartments (channel substratum, leaf litter bag and drift net) that were individually analyzed and also compared.
Carbon stocks were fractioned by both system compartments (aboveground, roots, soil, litter, dead wood – fine and coarse, and total) and tree use/form (cocoa, timber, fruit, bananas, shade and ornamentals, and palms).
When the cat has left the box, an electronic "arm" combs through the litter and scoops out the waste into a side compartment for easy cleaning and removal.
In this litterbag, designed for use in decomposition studies involving litter mixtures, litter species are decomposed in separated by mesh compartments so that they can interact with adjacent species and at the same time can be retrieved "non-contaminated" by them until late decomposition stages.
Added N increased the standing mass of vegetation and litter and the N content (kg N ha−1) of almost all measured plant, litter and soil compartments.
