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Soil fauna have been found to accelerate litter decomposition rates across many ecosystems, but little is known about their impact on soil organic matter formation during decomposition and their influence on ecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycling during this process. In a three-year litterbag-free decomposition study, we suppressed microarthropod abundance by 38% and tracked the fate of ¹³C- and ¹⁵N-labeled litter into different soil organic matter fractions and the microbial community. Microarthropod suppression slowed litter mass loss and decreased litter carbon input into the soil and soil microbes during the first 18 months of decomposition. The microarthropod suppression did not alter the total amount of carbon and nitrogen incorporated in the soil after complete surface litter mass loss. However, lower early-stage microbial carbon uptake due to lower early-stage litter inputs to the soil, as well as a significant …