Breakdown of four litters of contrasting quality in a tropical Australian rainforest.
Abstract
Litter bag studies in a lowland tropical rain forest in NE Queensland, Australia, showed that breakdown rates decreased in the order: Eucalyptus alba > mixed species rain forest = Araucaria cunninghamii >dot over˜ Pinus caribaea. The first two litter types were attractive to arthropods, the last was not. Of three commonly used regression models fitted to the data, exponential models gave satisfactory fits for all except the resistant litter of P. caribaea where an asymptotic model was appropriate.