International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 2025, Vol.15, No.5, 206-216 http://ecoevopublisher.com/index.php/ijmec 2 14 The two complement each other, making the decomposition process more efficient. Environmental conditions set boundaries for this process. Macroscopic factors such as temperature and humidity determine the overall rate, while soil pH and nutrient levels affect microbial activity, thereby causing differences among various habitats. Entering the 21st century, climate warming and land use changes have brought new challenges to decomposition and nutrient cycling. High-latitude regions need to be vigilant against the risk of carbon release brought about by the accelerated decomposition of permafrost, while in arid areas, decomposition may be restricted and organic matter accumulation may occur due to warming and reduced precipitation. Meanwhile, the invasion of alien plants significantly affects nutrient cycling by altering the properties of fallen leaves and the communities of decomcaters. Human factors such as excessive removal of litter and monoculture can also reduce the self-nutrient cycling capacity of an ecosystem. Future research should rely on long-term positioning monitoring and multi-factor control experiments to systematically evaluate the combined effects of temperature, precipitation, nitrogen deposition and CO₂ concentration, etc., in order to be closer to the real global change scenario. Technological progress has provided new paths for revealing the decomposition mechanism. Metagenomics can characterize the decomposition of microbial communities and functional gene changes, transcriptome and proteome techniques can analyze the expression of key enzymes at different stages, and metabolomics can track the dynamic changes of compounds during the degradation of organic matter. The integration of multi-omics helps answer the core questions of "who is at work, what has been done, and what products have been produced". For instance, studies on the fallen leaves of poplar trees have revealed the replacement of the dominant microbial community and its association with the carbon and nitrogen cycles. In the future, if such methods can be extended to complex field systems, they will better explain how environmental factors regulate decomposition efficiency and nutrient cycling pathways through decomposer communities, providing theoretical support and practical means for ecological restoration and global change response. Acknowledgments EcoEvo Publisher extends sincere thanks to two anonymous peer reviewers for their feedback on the manuscript. Conflict of Interest Disclosure The author affirms that this research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. 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