Sự phân hủy của rác thực vật có thể là quá trình phức tạp nhất của sinh quyển sinh thái ở chỗ nó liên quan đến sự tương tác của một số lượng lớn các đơn vị phân loại, trải rộng trên nhiều phạm vi của sự đa dạng sinh học. Vì sự phức tạp, gần như tất cả những nỗ lực để phân hủy rác mô hình nhà máy đã tiếp cận vấn đề từ một quan điểm hệ sinh thái: dự đoán mất khối lượng (cấp cứu quá trình sinh học) từ thành phần rác và điều kiện. | 9 Enzyme and Microbial Dynamics of Litter Decomposition Robert L. Sinsabaugh University of Toledo Toledo Ohio Margaret M. Carreiro University of Louisville Louisville Kentucky Sergio Alvarez Universidad Autonoma de Madrid Madrid Spain I. INTRODUCTION The decomposition of plant litter may be the biosphere s most complex ecological process in that it involves the interactions of a large number of taxa spanning much of the range of biotic diversity. Because of the complexity nearly all efforts to model plant litter decomposition have approached the problem from an ecosystem perspective predicting mass loss the emergent biotic process from litter composition and physical conditions the abiotic template 26 53 . Technological developments of the past two decades have removed many impediments to the study of microbial dynamics in natural systems however many of these tools have not been applied extensively to the study of microdecomposer communities this is beginning to change 22 75 . Consequently fundamental information on structural and functional patterns across systems a requisite for development of general models is lacking. The significance of this gap is apparent in the context of global change. The effects of atmospheric carbon enrichment nitrogen deposition climate alteration and other anthropogenic processes on ecosystems cannot be predicted without decomposition models grounded in biotic process 51 52 . The biotic process of decomposition spans three levels of organization biochemical organismal and community. At the biochemical level the topics of interest are the structure of plant fiber and the enzymological characteristics of degradation. The enzymological features are complex. For the polysaccharides at least one enzyme is required for every combination of monomer linkage and secondary structure 69 . For lignin and other aromatic molecules the process is principally oxidative the enzymes have lower specificity but the full range of enzymes and oxidants .
