Biology of Plant Litter Decomposition, Volume II is organized into two parts. The first part focuses on the organisms involved in plant litter decomposition, particularly, their structure and function. The second part deals with the environmental conditions under which breakdown occurs over the whole global surface. This volume separately considers terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. Furthermore, it describes two anthropocentric aspects: agriculture, with an emphasis on the importance of the saprophytic activity of plant pathogenic fungi, and the increasingly important composting of urban waste. This book will be invaluable to science students and instructors, as well as to biologists, botanists, marine ecologists.