Home-field advantage of litter decomposition: from the phyllosphere to the soil.

Plants often associate with specialized decomposer communities that increase plant litter breakdown, which is known as the 'home-field advantage' (HFA). Although the concept of HFA has long considered only the role of the soil microbial community, explicit consideration of the role of the microbial community on the foliage prior to litter fall (i.e., the phyllosphere community) may help us to better understand HFA. We investigated the occurrence of HFA in the presence versus absence of phyllosphere communities and found that HFA effects were less when phyllosphere communities were removed. We propose that priority effects and interactions between phyllosphere and soil organisms can help explain the positive effects of phyllosphere at home, and suggest a path forward for further investigation.