water to remove excess detrital matter. The cotton strips were removed from the wire

frame and cut into 2 cm wide strips 10 cm below the soil surface mark. 2 cm wide strips

were also cut in the corresponding benthic layer. The strips were washed in DI H20 and

allowed to soak for 10 minutes to ensure saturation prior to stretching. A tensiometer

(Chatillon TCD-200) with a digital force gauge (DFIS 200, Chatillon, Greensboro, North

Carolina, USA) was used to determine the remaining tensile strength of the cotton strips.

This value was subtracted from the control strip reading from the corresponding area.

The loss of tensile strength over time is expressed as a rate constant. Since the loss of

tensile strength is analogous to first-order decay, the calculation of the rate constant

requires linearization of the curve. Cotton Rottenness Rate (CRR) was calculated as (Hill

et al., 1985): CRR= { [((yo-y)/y)1/3)] / # of days deployed}* 365, where yo is the tensile

strength of the control strips and y is the tensile strength of the test strips at each 2 cm

increment.

Models

 Extracellular enzymes were grouped into four categories: Ecell (BGL), En (LEU),

Ep (PHO), and Eox (PHE and PER). This grouping allows the enzymes to be grouped

into those involved in C, N, and P mineralization as well as lignin degradation,

respectively. Enzyme activities are normalized on a scale of 0-1 to eliminate the

weighting effects of the more active enzymes. Enzyme ratios were formulated to reflect

the premise of resource allocation and were based on assumptions derived from the

MARCIE (Microbial Allocation of Resources Among Community Indicator Enzymes)

model (Sinsabaugh and Moorhead, 1994, 1996; Sinsabaugh and Findlay, 1995;

Sinsabaugh et al., 1997, 2002). The model is based on the premise that the enzyme

mediated decomposition of complex molecules is the rate limiting step in C