Figure 3:
Tea mass loss and decomposition metrics were comparable to other
sites across the tundra. Points and whiskers represent site-specific
medians and 95 % quantiles, respectively, of a) relative mass
loss in the two litter types and b) decomposition rate constantk and stabilisation factor S . White diamonds and coloured
whiskers show values for this study, while grey dots and whiskers show
values from 11 other sites across the tundra (Table S2; Thomas et al.
2023). Note that axes are truncated at the lower end.
We found that the micro-environmental predictors explained little
variation in tea mass loss and decomposition metrics (Figure 4). While
we observed some differences in the importance of environmental
predictors for decomposition between the two tea types, the overall
predictive power was low (Figure 4a). Specifically, Green Tea mass loss
was lower in warmer soils (p < 0.01) and was typically
greater with higher soil moisture, though the relationship was not
significant (p = 0.15). Green Tea mass loss did not vary
significantly with community leaf traits or soil characteristics (Figure
4a). None of the environmental factors predicted variation in Rooibos
Tea mass loss (Figure 4a) and we observed no particular spatial patterns
in mass loss for either litter type (Figure S4).