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Millipedes are considered to be important organisms involved in decomposition, both for their direct feeding on detritus and their indirect effects on microbial activity. Hanlon (1981a, 1981b) suggested that fragmentation of leaf litter by soil fauna increases microbial biomass by increasing leaf surface area and diminishing pore sizes. The passage of litter through the gut of macroarthropods, such as millipedes, can help in the establishment of soil bacteria (Anderson & Bignell, 1980; Hanlon, 1981a, 1981b; Tajovsky et al., 1991; Maraun & Scheu, 1996). The presence of millipedes has been shown to increase the decomposition of litter as well as increase growth of seedlings (Carcamo et al., 2001). In a beech forest, Bonkowski et al. (1998) also found that the presence of millipedes significantly increased the decomposition of litter, much more so than endogeic earthworms. The presence of millipedes has also been found to greatly increase the release of litter nutrients into the soil, especially calcium and nitrates (Pramanik et al., 2001). Millipedes are selective about what leaves they eat (Lyford, 1943; Kheirallah, 1979; Carcamo et al., 2000). The chemical composition of leaf litter, especially the lignin and nitrogen content, can greatly affect soil fauna populations, although this effect is not clear for millipedes (Tian et al., 1993). Van der Drift (1975) estimated that in temperate areas millipedes are responsible for ingesting 5–10 percent of the annual leaf litter fall and Carcamo et al. (2000) estimated that a single species of millipede consumed 36 percent of the annual leaf litter in a British Columbian Cedar-Hemlock forest. Tropical studies have also found a large influence of millipedes on decomposition (Tian et al., 1995). In a Tabonuco forest in Puerto Rico, Ruan et al. (2005) found that millipede density explained 40 percent of the variance in leaf litter decomposition rates, while soil microbial biomass explained only 19 percent of the variance.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Millipedes on the Decay of Litter of Varying Lignin Content