coarse medium fine

036 DECOMPOSITION IN NATURE

To study the rate of decomposition of leaf and litter in nature, using bags of

3 mesh sizes. Coarse allows soil organisms including earthworms, medium

restricts earthworms but allows microarthropods, fine allows microorganisms.

Mesh Bags (coarse, medium and fine)

Leaf or litter discs

Graph paper and pencil

MATERIALS REQUIRED

corer

leafdiscs

Make leaf or litter discs with a corer (GI pipe sharpened at one end)

soak litter in water if brittle before making discs.

coarse finemedium

Insert your samples in the bags – do not overload, see to it the discs are well

loose and scattered. Place these bags in the surface litter. Remove some discs

from the bags, every 10 days and study them.

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

Graph sheet

Place the original disc on a graph sheet, draw it and count the mm units to

represent in mm2. then place the sample, draw it and study of the mm2 units

have decomposed in each type of bag over time. This indicates the rate of

decomposition in different mesh sizes and how organisms of different sizes

influence decomposition.