Articles | Volume 22, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-417-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-417-2025
Research article
 | 
22 Jan 2025
Research article |  | 22 Jan 2025

A synthesis of Sphagnum litterbag experiments: initial leaching losses bias decomposition rate estimates

Henning Teickner, Edzer Pebesma, and Klaus-Holger Knorr

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Cited articles

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Bengtsson, F., Granath, G., and Rydin, H.: Data from: Photosynthesis, Growth, and Decay Traits in Sphagnum – a Multispecies Comparison, Dryad [data set], https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.62054, 2017. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o
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Decomposition rates for Sphagnum mosses, the main peat-forming plants in northern peatlands, are often derived from litterbag experiments. Here, we estimate initial leaching losses from available Sphagnum litterbag experiments and analyze how decomposition rates are biased when initial leaching losses are ignored. Our analyses indicate that initial leaching losses range between 3 to 18 mass-% and that this may result in overestimated mass losses when extrapolated to several decades.
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