Aydeé Cornejo

TL;DR: It is found that climate warming will likely hasten microbial litter decomposition and produce an equivalent decline in detritivore-mediated decomposition rates, which implies consequences for global biogeochemistry and a possible positive climate feedback.

TL;DR: The authors' findings markedly contrast with global trends of diversity for most taxa, and with the general rule of higher consumer diversity at higher levels of resource diversity, and highlight the emerging role of temperature in understanding global patterns of diversity, which is of great relevance in the face of projected global warming.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used linear regression to examine the latitudinal variation in shredder diversity at different spatial scales: alpha (a), gamma (g) and beta (b) diversity.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used data obtained with standardized methods from multiple streams in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia to test the hypothesis that this variability would lead to differences in the relative role of detritivores and microorganisms in the breakdown process.

TL;DR: The results support earlier indications that shredders are not scarce or functionally unimportant in the tropics, and suggest that their contribution to litter processing should be determined along altitudinal gradients.