From 1 April to 26 August 1978, about 45 percent of the aboveground standing dead plant material and litter disappeared in ungrazed bluestem prairie on Konza Prairie Research Natural Area, Geary County, Kansas, USA. In plots trampled on April 1 to compact the material close to the soil surface about 55 percent of the material decomposed. The results are based on 10 replications in native prairie on deep, productive, silty-clay loam at two sites, 1 and 5 years since burning