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Ecology

Diversity in the afterlife

Field experiments that varied the composition of both plant litter and the organisms that break it down have revealed that, across ecosystems, lower biodiversity slows the rate of litter decomposition. See Letter p.218

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Figure 1: Composition and decomposition.

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Correspondence to Jennie R. McLaren.

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McLaren, J. Diversity in the afterlife. Nature 509, 173–174 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/509173a

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