Abstract
The decomposition of autumn-shed leaves in streams has traditionally been subdivided into three more or less distinct phases: leaching, microbial colonization and invertebrate feeding. Leaching is defined as the abiotic removal of soluble substances, among them phenolics, carbohydrates and amino acids. The rate of leaching and the composition of leachates are influenced by humidity and temperature experienced by leaves between their detachment from trees and submersion in water. To minimize variability in litter decomposition experiments, the collected leaves are typically dried at low (ambient) temperature to constant mass, which typically accelerates leaching greatly when the leaf tissue is still alive. The method described in this chapter allows assessing leaching rates of autumn-shed leaves submerged in streams and under controlled laboratory conditions, and how the use of pre-dried leaves as opposed to freshly fallen leaves may affect these rates. Suitable statistical analyses to compare leaching rates, including Student’s t-test, ANOVA and resampling tests, are also presented.
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Bärlocher, F. (2020). Leaching. In: Bärlocher, F., Gessner, M., Graça, M. (eds) Methods to Study Litter Decomposition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30515-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30515-4_5
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