An ecologist placed a mesh litter bag containing 120.0 g of dried oak leaves on the forest floor to study decomposition. After 48 days48\text{ days}48 days, the bag was retrieved and the dry mass of the remaining leaves was found to be 103.2 g.
Calculate the average rate of decomposition of the oak leaves in g/day\text{g/day}g/day. Use the equation:
rate of decomposition=change in masstime taken \text{rate of decomposition} = \frac{\text{change in mass}}{\text{time taken}} rate of decomposition=time takenchange in mass
