Abstract
Climate and litter quality are primary drivers of terrestrial
decomposition and, based on evidence from multisite experiments at
regional and global scales, are universally factored into global
decomposition models. In contrast, soil animals are considered key
regulators of decomposition at local scales but their role at larger
scales is unresolved. Soil animals are consequently excluded from
global models of organic mineralization processes. Incomplete
assessment of the roles of soil animals stems from the difficulties of
manipulating invertebrate animals experimentally across large
geographic gradients. This is compounded by deficient or inconsistent
taxonomy. We report a global decomposition experiment to assess the
importance of soil animals in C mineralization, in which a common grass
litter substrate was exposed to natural decomposition in either control
or reduced animal treatments across 30 sites distributed from 43
degrees S to 68 degrees N on six continents. Animals in the me
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