Burning of the most abundant isotope of lithium, lithium-7, occurs by a collision of Li and a proton producing beryllium-8, which promptly decays into two helium-4 nuclei. The temperature necessary for this reaction is just below the temperature necessary for hydrogen fusion. Convection in low-mass stars ensures that lithium in the whole volume of the star is depleted. Therefore, the presence of the lithium line in a candidate brown dwarf's spectrum is a strong indicator that it is indeed substellar.