Don’t throw the baby out with the (leached) bathwater; a reply to Lind
et al., 2022
Abstract
During litter decomposition, part of the water-soluble components of the
material dissolve (leach) rapidly into available water in the
environment. Studies on litter decomposition that quantify mass-loss
from litterbags integrate leaching and mineralization. In contrast to
Lind et al. (2022), we believe that correcting for leaching in
(terrestrial) litterbags studies such as the Tea Bag Index will result
in more uncertainties than it resolves. This is mainly because leaching
is a continuous process and because leached material can still be
mineralized after leaching. Further, amount of material that potentially
leaches from tea is comparable to other litter types. When correcting
for leaching, it is key to be specific about the employed method, just
like being specific about the study specific definition of
decomposition.