Abstract
Soil is a complex system that is vital to life on earth. Much of our understanding of soil processes revolves around plant-derived inputs of carbon and nutrients. This focus on plant-derived inputs has led researchers to underappreciate the potential impacts that animal-derived inputs can have on soil communities and the ecosystem processes that they regulate. There is growing evidence that carrion effects on soils are not ephemeral but can be long-lasting, setting the future trajectory of soil communities and biogeochemical cycles. This chapter will examine current theory and examples of the effects carrion inputs have on soil.