Don’t throw the baby out with the (leached) bathwater; a reply to Lind et al., 2022

During litter decomposition, part of the water-soluble components of the material dissolve (leach) rapidly into available water in the environment. Studies on litter decomposition that quantify mass-loss from litterbags integrate leaching and mineralization. In contrast to Lind et al. (2022), we believe that correcting for leaching in (terrestrial) litterbags studies such as the Tea Bag Index will result in more uncertainties than it resolves. This is mainly because leaching is a continuous process and because leached material can still be mineralized after leaching. Further, amount of material that potentially leaches from tea is comparable to other litter types. When correcting for leaching, it is key to be specific about the employed method, just like being specific about the study specific definition of decomposition.