Comments on Methods for Litter Decomposition Studies

Design of experiments is important, and we have summarized our experience with long-term measurements. We discuss how to plan experiments, how to prepare the litter for incubation and share thoughts about sampling intensity and number of replicate samples as well as consequences of too few samples. The concept period mass loss or annual mass loss is presented and discussed. This chapter also discusses some common analytical methods for lignin/Acid Unhydrolyzable Residue (AUR) with emphasis on the approach of using C-NMR.