Study
A test of the hierarchical model of litter decomposition
Bradford, Mark A.; Veen, G. F. Ciska; Bonis, Anne; Bradford, Elizabeth M.; Classen, Aimée T.; Cornelissen, J. Hans C.
Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2017
A coordinated experiment deploying standard litter across many sites, designed to test the assumption that climate is the dominant control on decomposition at large scales, with litter chemistry and local decomposer community as subordinate factors.
- Studied in
- Plantae, Fungi, Animalia
- Sample size
- coordinated litter decomposition experiment across many sites
Local factors — soil conditions and decomposer community — explained substantially more variation in decomposition than the hierarchical model predicts, and climate alone was a poorer predictor at the scales tested than commonly assumed.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The conventional hierarchy placing climate above litter quality above soil organisms does not hold as generally as models assume.
How NatureHQ reads it
This matters because the hierarchy it questions is embedded in large-scale carbon models. If local soil biology explains more than the textbook ordering allows, then predictions built on climate as the master control are resting on an assumption that a coordinated experiment did not support. The site presents it as a challenge to a widely used simplification, not as its replacement.
- A coordinated experiment using standard substrates, which are not the litter each site actually receives.
- Scales tested do not cover the full global range over which the hierarchical model is applied.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Nature PortfolioPublished in a Nature Portfolio journal.
doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0367-4
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-04.