In Mid August at the reciprocal transplant gardens (CF, TL, SG), recently senesced (yellow in colour with remaining structural integrity) Eriophorum vaginatum litter was taken from multiple haphazardly selected tussocks which were approximately 2 m apart. Litter was sorted in the lab to remove any green or grey (heavily decomposed) leaves. It was then air dried (72 hours) in the lab. 0.75 +/- 0.01 g of air dried litter was sealed into 8 x 8 cm plastic mesh bags (2mm mesh size) with an identifying metal tag. 10 replicate 1g air dried samples from each population were oven dried for 72 hours to calculate residual moisture in the air dried samples. This was used to correct the air dried starting masses of the litter bags samples.

Litter bags from the three populations were deployed at CF (8/26/15), TL (8/24/16) and SG (8/25/16) sites approximately 40 m away from the main transplant gardens (east of CF, east of TL and west of SG) into 5 blocks with 4 intended harvests at each plots. This totaled  180 litter bags. Plots consisted of single 30 cm diameter tussocks whereby 4  litter bags from the same population were pinned to the west side in positions that were representative of where leave litter would decompose under normal conditions. A good contact with the tussock for each bag was ensured.  Each block consisted of three such tussocks within 1 m each other, each with a different population. Each block was approximately 8 m apart.

In June and August 2016 (see data for exact dates), a single litter bag was retrieved from each plot at all three sites. In-grown biomass was removed and the remaining litter was oven dried (72h) and weighed. Percentage of litter remaining was calculated with respect to oven dried-corrected starting mass.