LWF-Tea bag sites

In Beatenberg and Schaenis, additional elevation transects were established (1200-1800 m and 540-1150 m, respectively) to examine particularly the effect of temperature on decomposition. In Pfynwald (wsl.ch/de/ueber-die-wsl/versuchsanlagen-und-labors/flaechen-im-wald/pfynwald.html) and Salgesch, infrastructure of running projects was used to examine the effect of drought and understory removal, respectively.

In Novaggio, tea bags were incubated in summer and winter to study the effect of seasonality particularly precipitation. Tea bags are collected after 3, 12, 24, and 36 months; for the two time-shifted experiments additionally after 6 and 9 months. The study has two primary objectives.

Firstly, it contributes to TeaComposition initiative (teacomposition.org/) which aims at investigating long-term litter decomposition and its key drivers at present as well as under different future climate scenarios using a common protocol and standard litter (tea) across nine terrestrial biomes. Secondly, the data are used to further develop decomposition models such as Yasso (en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/yasso) which is used by several countries, including Switzerland to estimate the annual carbon fluxes in dead wood, litter, and soil for reporting in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.