Foliar Litter Decomposition: A Conceptual Model with Focus on Pine (Pinus) Litter—A Genus with Global Distribution

Figure 15

Decomposition rates for decomposing litter gradually decrease and the accumulated mass loss may approach an asymptote, a limit value. The process may be described using (3), which may be used to estimate the decomposition rate at any point in time. The initial decomposition rate (𝑘-initial) gives the rate at time 0 from [34].