Investigations on the budget of plant litter and litter carbon in forest streams can provide a key scientific basis for understanding the biogeochemical linkages of terrestrial–aquatic ecosystems and managing forest catchments. To understand th...
Litter’s chemical complexity influences carbon (C) cycling during its decomposition. However, the chemical and microbial mechanisms underlying the divergence or convergence of chemical complexity under UV radiation remain poorly understood. Her...
To explore the question how litter and macrofauna feces respond to temperature and how respiration differs for litter with a different CN ratio, we compared the decomposition rates of leaf litter (Alnus glutinosa, Salix caprea, and Acer campestre) an...
Microorganisms play a crucial role in litter decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. The leaf and fine root litters of Robinia pseudoacacia Linn., Quercus acutissima Carr., Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. and Pinus densiflora Sieb. were analysed using the...
The mechanism by which litter–soil interface properties interact to shape the composition and diversity of litter decomposition-driving microorganisms remains unclear. Here, litter and surface soil samples were collected from three typical fore...
Chicken litter or chicken litter-based organic fertilizers are usually recycled into the soil to improve the structure and fertility of agricultural land. As an important source of nutrients for crop production, chicken litter may also contain a vari...
Current guidelines recommend transitioning cats from one litter product to another over 6 days to minimize stress. The study objective was therefore to test these guidelines using 16 adult domestic cats (2 cohorts of 8) by observing behavioural chang...
Litter decomposition is a crucial biochemical process regulated by microbial activities in the forest ecosystem. However, the dynamic response of the fungal community during litter decomposition to vegetation changes is not well understood. Here, we...
Pollution in the form of litter in the natural environment is one of the great challenges of our times. Automated litter detection can help assess waste occurrences in the environment. Different machine learning solutions have been explored to develo...
The water retention capacity of forest leaf litter was estimated through lysimeter measurements under field conditions. Six lysimeters were placed in Pinus koraiensis and Quercus acutissima forests and filled with the surrounding leaf litter to repre...
The decomposition of abnormal litter caused by extreme weather events might play an increasingly important role in carbon and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems under climate change scenarios, which needs to be fully investigated. In August 2020,...
This study aimed to assess how prenatal and early postnatal conditions affect the future reproductive performance of young female pigs (gilts). Female piglets were selected from sows in their 3rd and 4th parity. Vaginal and cervical length (VCL) was...
The aim of this study was to reveal the decomposition differences of kiwifruit litters with different qualities and verify the “Initial Litter Quality Hypothesis”. This study took litters of ‘Jinkui’ and ‘Hort-16A’...
Litter size plays an essential role in mammalian evolution and is one of the most important factors determining whether an organism is deemed to have a ‘slow’ or ‘fast’ life history strategy. Humans are distinct in being class...
Litter plays an important role in seedling establishment (emergence, survival, and early growth). Here, we performed a meta-analysis on 404 datasets from 33 independent studies to analyze the effects of litter cover on seedling emergence, survival, h...
13 June 2012
Cigarette butts are consistently the most collected items in litter clean-up efforts, which are a costly burden to local economies. In addition, tobacco waste may be detrimental to our natural environment. The tobacco industry has conducted or funded...
Floor litter can reduce the amount of water reaching the soil layer through rainfall interception. The rainfall interception capacity of floor litter varies with the physical features of the litter and rainfall characteristics. This study aimed to de...
Urban litter is generated by human societies everywhere. Some litter is recyclable waste. In this study, the acronym RMSW is used to refer to recyclable municipal solid waste generated in streets. Public attitude towards RMSW generation, generators’...
Rivers are among the main sources of marine litter, especially for semi-isolated sea areas with high populations and intense economic activity. The semi-isolated Black Sea located in the Eastern Europe is an example of such an area, whose watershed b...
Litter is a pervasive social and environmental issue that continues to evade effective and sustainable mitigation strategies. As the nature of waste items can influence methods and rates of littering, an understanding of litter typologies associated...
Stranded beach litter is a ubiquitous issue. Manual monitoring and retrieval can be cost and labour intensive. Therefore, automatic litter monitoring and retrieval is an essential mitigation strategy. In this paper, we present important foundational...
There is a conspicuous lacuna in the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990 because it imposes no legal duty on statutory bodies to clear litter from aquatic environments (rivers, canals and lakes) in England and Wales. This paper identifies a signi...
Treating manure with aluminum sulfate (alum) is a best management practice (BMP) which reduces ammonia (NH3) emissions and phosphorus (P) runoff from poultry litter. However, the price of alum has increased markedly in recent years, creating a need f...
Thousands of tonnes of litter enter the ocean every day, posing a significant threat to marine life and ecosystems. While floating and beach litter are often in the spotlight, about 70% of marine litter eventually sinks to the seafloor, making underw...
Marine litter has had a huge impact on the marine environment and the socio-economic activities that depend on healthy oceans. All members of the community must play their part to address marine litter. Teachers are agents of change that are capable...
Understory vegetation is a critical component of forest ecosystems. Its removal can substantially alter litter decomposition processes, with cascading effects on carbon (C) and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the global response...
Gaseous emissions from poultry litter causes production problems for producers as well as the environment, by contributing to climate change and reducing air quality. Novel methods of reducing ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in poult...
The effects of leaf litter on moisture content and fungal decay development in above-ground wood specimens were assessed. Untreated southern pine specimens were exposed with or without leaf litter contact. Two types of leaf litter were evaluated; age...
Most advances in the remote sensing of floating marine plastic litter have been made using passive remote-sensing techniques in the visible (VIS) to short-wave-infrared (SWIR) parts of the electromagnetic spectrum based on the spectral absorption fea...
Understanding decomposition patterns of mixed-leaf litter from agroforestry species is crucial, as leaf litter in ecosystems naturally occurs as mixtures rather than as separate individual species. We hypothesized that litter mixtures with larger tra...
The aim of this paper is to identify and develop key indicators related to beach and marine litter using land and coastal areas as sources to diagnose the current situation in Tunisia. Based on the results, recommendations have been developed to supp...
Litter decomposition involves multiple complex processes, including interactions between the physicochemical characteristics of litter species and various environmental factors. We selected four representative pine species in South Korea (Pinus densi...
Urination and/or defecation outside a designated location has been reported as the most common behavioural reason for surrendering a cat and comprises approximately 30% of cat intakes to shelters. The objective of this study was to determine whether...
In Mediterranean ecosystems, the projected rainfall reduction of up to 30% may alter plant–soil interactions, particularly litter decomposition and Home Field Advantage (HFA). We set up a litter transplant experiment in the three main forests e...
The litter decomposition process is closely correlated with nutrient cycling and the maintenance of soil fertility in the forest ecosystem. In particular, the intense environmental concern about atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition requires a better u...
Leaf litter quality has been acknowledged as a crucial determinant affecting litter decomposition on broad spatial scales. However, the extent of the contribution of soil fauna to litter decomposability remains largely uncertain. Nor are the effects...
Cryptostegia madagascariensis is an invasive plant species that covers 11% of the Brazilian northeastern territory, but its role on the litter trait in tropical ecosystems remains unclear. Here, we analyzed and compared the litter deposition, litter...
In recent years, citizen science has proven to be an effective means of monitoring plastic litter, bring potential benefits to professional researchers and authorities, and create awareness on plastic pollution at a society level. This paper aims to...
Climate has shaped green leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) patterns through its direct physiological effects (Temperature–Plant Physiology hypothesis), indirect pathways involving soil nutrients (Soil Substrate Age hypothesis), or vegetation...
Improvement of lowly heritable traits is difficult, efforts must be made to take full advantage of the available information sources to improve them. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of the size of the litter in which the sow wa...
Headwater streams have low productivity and are closely linked to forest ecosystems, which input a large amount of plant litter into streams. Most current studies have focused on the decomposition process of plant litter in streams, and the effects o...
Both riparian tree species diversity and genetic diversity can influence streams through leaf litter decomposition; however, these two sources of variation have not been compared directly. Here, we compare leaf litter decomposition for a physical mix...
Large-area, artificial floating marine litter (FML) targets were deployed during a controlled field experiment and data acquisition campaign: the Plastic Litter Project 2021. A set of 22 Sentinel-2 images, along with UAS data and ancillary measuremen...
In grassland ecosystems, the decomposition of litter serves as a vital conduit for nutrient transfer between plants and soil. The aim of this study was to depict the dynamic process of grass litter decomposition and explore its major driver. Three ty...
There are about 10.1 million domestic cats in Italy, but information on cats’ litter management and house-soiling prevalence is scant. This study described cats’ and cat owners’ profiles, litter management practices, and whether cat...
The problem of marine litter is becoming more visible in Croatia. The main goal of this paper is to investigate issues related to marine litter in the Croatian Adriatic, from the current state of sources and quantities of marine litter, through marin...
Rivers are a source of life. However, these past years, the sustainability of rivers around the world has been threatened by urbanization, industrialization, and rapid development. These activities put pressure on waterway systems and rivers, leading...
The issue of marine litter has been an important concern for marine environmental protection for a long time, especially underwater litter. It is not only challenging to clean up, but its prolonged presence underwater can cause damage to marine ecosy...
20 September 2019
Chicken litter application on land as an organic fertilizer is the cheapest and most environmentally safe method of disposing of the volume generated from the rapidly expanding poultry industry worldwide. However, little is known about the safety of...
Increased generation of waste, production of plastics, and poor environmental stewardship has led to an increase in floating litter. Significant efforts have been dedicated to mitigating this globally relevant issue. Depending on the location of floa...
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