Aboveground-belowground relationships in temperate forests: Plant litter composes and microbiota orchestrates

We found that litter disappearance rates and nitrogen release depend more on the functional characteristics of the component litter species (litter quality) than on their number, and on the functional characteristics of the dominant species rather than on their number. These results were mainly due to microbiota activity. Field vegetation only influenced nitrogen release for bags filled with 100% hornbeam. In this study we thus examine our results in the light of contradictory outcomes from the literature, and discuss methodological aspects of litter diversity experiments with regard to forest ecosystem specificity.