LWF-Tea bag sites
Datasets
Decomposition of plant litter is a key process for the transfer of carbon and nutrients in ecosystems. Carbon contained in the decaying biomass is released to the atmosphere as respired CO2, and may contribute to global warming. Litterbag studies have been used to improve our knowledge of the drivers of litter decomposition, but they lack comparability because litter quality is plant species-specific. The use of commercial tea bags as a standard substrate was suggested in order to harmonize studies, where green tea and rooibos represent more labile and more recalcitrant C compounds as surrogates of local litter. The tea bag approach was implemented on eight sites of the Swiss long-term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF) network (https://www.wsl.ch/LWF). This allowed us to take advantage from the existing infrastructure and data from a previous litterbag study with local litter. In Beatenberg and Schaenis, additional elevation transects were established (1200-1800 m and 540-1150 m, respectively) to examine particularly the effect of temperature on decomposition. In Pfynwald (https://www.wsl.ch/de/ueber-die-wsl/versuchsanlagen-und-labors/flaechen-im-wald/pfynwald.html) and Salgesch, inf