Humid tropical forest soils have extremely fast decomposition rates, with most mass lost within one year. Our lab is taking a systems biology approach to understand, recreate, and identify key components of this highly productive biomass deconstruction system by looking at biomass deconstruction from the ecosystem level under field conditions, the soil system level under laboratory conditions, and through individual isolates. Towards this end, we designed a field experiment in which litterbags filled with switch grass were buried in June 2008 in the Luquillo LTER, Puerto Rico, in four different forest types along an elevational and rainfall gradient. Over the course of the year, we have assayed microbial community structure and function using the high-density microarray16S ribosomal RNA PhyloChip, enzyme assays, and mass loss to track decomposition. We also buried biosep beads amended with lignin as bug traps intended to identify lignin-degrading microbes. Information from this study was used to inform lab incubation studies, intended to manipulate conditions to accelerate decomposition even further. Surprisingly, the slowest rates of decomposition measured in the field, from the wettest site, translated to the fastest anaerobic decomposition in the lab. Cultivation of feedstock-adapted consortia and isolation of lignocellulolytic bacteria and fungi have resulted in a culture collecting for screening of novel enzymes and controls. The diverse and active microbial biomass, Fe-oxide mineralogy, and frequently fluctuating redox suggest that this soil consortium will be more dominated by bacteria than fungi, as in most temperate systems, a distinct advantage for industrial biofuels applications.