Modeling Decomposition: Beyond a Well-Mixed World
Abstract
Carbon cycle models overlook resource patchiness and networked foraging characterizing terrestrial carbon dynamics. They treat inputs as well mixed and decomposers as acting at local scales, making substrate stoichiometry, rather than spatial access, the primary constraint on decomposition. Using deadwood decomposition by cord-forming fungi and termites as examples, we illustrate how resource patchiness and networked foraging are large carbon cycle components departing from well-mixed expectations. Deadwood patchiness limits decomposition in organisms incapable of integrating distant substrates. Fungal and termite transport networks alleviate these constraints connecting substrates across space and time, altering deadwood decomposition, decomposer biomass and necromass turnover rates. We outline bottom-up and top-down approaches coupling network foraging and transport models to carbon models, moving the field beyond well-mixed paradigms.
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BibTeX
@misc{aguilartrigueros2026modeling,
title = {{Modeling Decomposition: Beyond a Well-Mixed World}},
author = {Carlos A Aguilar-Trigueros and William K Cornwell and Katherine Rocci and Baptiste Joseph Wijas and Amy E Zanne},
howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.32942/x2fq2n},
url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15228/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Modeling Decomposition: Beyond a Well-Mixed World
AU - Carlos A Aguilar-Trigueros
AU - William K Cornwell
AU - Katherine Rocci
AU - Baptiste Joseph Wijas
AU - Amy E Zanne
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - EcoEvoRxiv
DO - 10.32942/x2fq2n
UR - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15228/
AB - Carbon cycle models overlook resource patchiness and networked foraging characterizing terrestrial carbon dynamics. They treat inputs as well mixed and decomposers as acting at local scales, making substrate stoichiometry, rather than spatial access, the primary constraint on decomposition. Using deadwood decomposition by cord-forming fungi and termites as examples, we illustrate how resource patchiness and networked foraging are large carbon cycle components departing from well-mixed expectations. Deadwood patchiness limits decomposition in organisms incapable of integrating distant substrates. Fungal and termite transport networks alleviate these constraints connecting substrates across space and time, altering deadwood decomposition, decomposer biomass and necromass turnover rates. We outline bottom-up and top-down approaches coupling network foraging and transport models to carbon models, moving the field beyond well-mixed paradigms.
ER -