Organic Chemical Characterization of Decomposing Plant Litter: A Comparison of Methods

Abstract

There are two common methods to characterize organic chemical composition of decomposing plant litter, a forest products method and a forage fiber method. These methods divide litter into a few fractions based on extractions using different solvents. In this study, equivalencies were established between the fractions of the methods. Some of the equivalencies were based on similarities in the fractionation methods, whereas some were estimated empirically. The equivalencies gave similar chemical composition for different litter types as measurements. The results were also comparable to, or for certain fractions even better than, those obtained using earlier conversion equations. The equivalencies established are suitable for converting the forage fiber fractions to the forest products fractions in litter decomposition studies. Thus, they increase possibilities to exchange data on litter chemical characteristics across the methods in decomposition studies.

Keywords:

• Carbon
• chemical composition
• organic fractions

Acknowledgments

We thank Tapio Salo and Kristiina Regina at the Agrifood Research Finland for providing us with the dataset of the agricultural litter types. This study received funding from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Finland (AGRIYASSO project) and European Commission (NitroEurope and GHG Europe projects).