Background and Aims <p>Vegetation degradation and restoration in drylands often result in patchy plant communities dominated by different species. Such fine-scale heterogeneity may cause plant litter to decompose either <i>in situ</i> or <i>ex situ</i>. However, the microsite-scale dynamics of litter decomposition remain poorly understood.</p> Methods <p>We conducted a field reciprocal litter transplant experiment to examine how decomposition microsites influence the temporal dynamics of leaf litter decomposition of the dominant shrub <i>Artemisia ordosica</i> and grass <i>Leymus secalinus</i> in the Mu-Us Desert, northern China.</p> Results <p>Litter mass loss rates were comparable between species, while litter of both species decomposed faster in moist and nutrient-rich <i>L. secalinus</i> patches than in <i>A. ordosica</i> patches. The overall home-field effect shifted from neutral to negative over the course of decomposition. This pattern was found to be driven primarily by the decomposition dynamics of <i>A. ordosica</i> litter, suggesting that strong microsite effects on decomposition may have obscured its home-field effects and driven them toward negative values. In contrast, the home-field effect for <i>L. secalinus</i> litter declined from positive (i.e., home-field advantage, HFA) to neutral over time. The temporal declines in home-field effects coincided with interspecific convergence in litter stoichiometric ratios and paralleled a shift in the primary controls on decomposition from litter chemistry to soil microbial and hydrothermal factors.</p> Conclusion <p>Our findings suggest that across-patch HFA may emerge within the studied community, although it may weaken over time as interspecific differences in litter chemistry diminish and decomposition becomes increasingly controlled by soil factors.</p>