Quaggiotto, Maria-MartinaEvans, MaldwynHiggins, AndrewStrong, CraigBarton, Philip2021-06-11Quaggiotto, MM., Evans, M.J., Higgins, A. et al. Dynamic soil nutrient and moisture changes under decomposing vertebrate carcasses. Biogeochemistry 146, 71–82 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-019-00611-30168-2563http://hdl.handle.net/1885/237293The decomposition of animal carcasses contributes to nutrient recycling in ecosystems worldwide, including by delivering nutrients to soil. Although several studies have characterised changes in soil chemistry occurring under carcasses, many ecological studies have occurred over extended postmortem intervals and fine-scale temporal changes in physicochemical conditions are poorly understood. We examined changes in a suite of soil physicochemical properties occurring under decomposing rabbit carcasses during summer in a grassland ecosystem. We found that carcasses lost over 90% of their starting mass and reached dry decay and skeletonization after 20 days of decomposition. Carcass temperatures were up to 15 C higher than ambient temperatures during the active decay stage (days 3 and 5) of decomposition.MMQ received funding from the British Society for Soil Science. PSB received funding from the Australian Research Council (DE150100026).© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AGDecompositionCarrionNitrogenNecrobiomeNutrient cyclingEcosystemPostmortemEcological processGrassland2019-10-1610.1007/s10533-019-00611-3