DOI: 10.5061/dryad.18931zd91
title: Climatic stress-induced changes in plant chemistry alter the compound-specific degradation of litter during decomposition

description: Plant litter decomposition supports ecosystem productivity and influences
 soil carbon cycling. Drought directly impacts decomposition by decreasing
 soil moisture and indirectly by altering plant tissue chemistry, an aspect
 that is less explored in decomposition research. To elucidate the above
 interactive effects of altered precipitation on litter decomposition, we
 conducted an in situ and reciprocal decomposition experiment at a climate
 manipulation experiment (BACE) in MA, USA, using litter from Quercus rubra
 and Quercus velutina exposed to ambient, dry, and wet
 precipitation treatments for four years at BACE. Plant tissues exposed to
 dry litter origin treatment were enriched in alkyl compounds and lignin in
 both species. Litter of Q. rubra from the dry treatment initially
 decomposed faster in the dry (38%) than in the wet treatment (28%).
 Similarly, litter of Q. rubra from the wet treatment initially decomposed
 faster in the wet (40%) compared to the dry (25%) treatment.
 Interestingly, litter of both species from the dry treatment, when
 decomposed in dry, ambient, and wet treatments, had more alkyl compounds,
 representing a legacy effect of the drought-induced altered initial litter
 chemistry that persisted throughout the two years of decomposition. Our
 study provides novel insights that drought stress-induced changes in
 litter chemistry can influence mass loss and create a legacy effect on the
 persistence of recalcitrant compounds during decomposition.
description: # Climatic stress-induced changes in plant chemistry alter the
 compound-specific degradation of litter during decomposition The dataset
 Metadata_Zhang_et_al._New_Phytologist.xlsx includes (1)
 'DRIFT-undecomposed QR', (2) 'DRIFT-undecomposed QV',
 (3)'DRIFT-decomposed QR', (4) 'DRIFT-decomposed QV',
 (5) 'Mass loss_QR Year 1', (6) 'Mass loss_QR Year 2',
 (7) 'Mass loss_QV Year 1', (8) 'Mass loss_QV Year 2',
 and (9) 'Soil Ergosterol' and (10) 'Phenol oxidase. In the
 metadata file, QR refers to Quercus rubra, QV refers to Quercus velutina,
 and DRIFT refers to Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform
 spectroscopy.   ## Description of the data and file structure Data in the
 sheets of (1) 'DRIFT-undecomposed QR', and (2)
 'DRIFT-undecomposed QV', are organized by the wave number of
 DRIFT named as 'DRIFT peaks', followed by the treatments
 'QR_Dry litter', 'QR_Wet litter' and 'QR_Ambient
 litter', which indicates the undecomposed litter collected from the
 dry, wet and ambient precipitation treatments, respectively. Data in the
 sheets of (3)'DRIFT-decomposed QR', (4) 'DRIFT-decomposed
 QV', (5) 'Mass loss_QR Year 1', (6) 'Mass loss_QR Year
 2', (7) 'Mass loss_QV Year 1', (8) 'Mass loss_QV Year
 2' and (9) 'Soil Ergosterol' are organized by block,
 precipitation treatments, litter origin treatments, time of retrieval and
 the percent mass loss. In these data sets, precipitation treatments are
 labelled as AT, DT and WT, which refer to Ambient treatment, Dry treatment
 and Wet treatment, respectively. The litter origin treatments are labelled
 as AL, DL and WL, which refer to Ambient litter, Dry litter and Wet
 litter, respectively. Data in the sheet (10) 'Phenol oxidase' is
 organized by precipitation treatments. In the data that include DRIFT, the
 relative intensities of the different peaks are provided. Percentage of
 mass lost is provided in the data sets with mass loss.  For details on
 methods: refer to the published paper, doi: 10.1111/nph.70449 ##
 Sharing/Access information Links to other publicly accessible locations of
 the data: Not applicable