DOI: 10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t74
title: Data from: Effects of two key plant trait spectra on litter layer properties and habitat provision functions

description: Plant litter harbours a wide range of organisms, such as soil animals,
 microbes, vascular plants (including their seeds and seedlings), mosses,
 and lichens. While it is well-recognised that litter drives carbon and
 nutrient cycling through their traits related to the plant resource
 economics spectrum (PES), their explanatory power for predicting the
 litter-dwelling biological community has been very low. In this era of
 biodiversity change, litter habitat provisioning functions for myriad
 organisms should receive more research attention.  A conceptual
 multivariate trait space defined by a physical trait axis related to the
 litter size and shape spectrum (SSS) and a biochemical trait axis (PES)
 has been proposed to explain habitat as well as nutrition functions for
 soil organisms. We aim to improve the explanatory power of litter traits
 for the litter-dwelling animal communities by testing this concept, and by
 connecting fundamental traits related to size and shape of single litter
 particles (i.e., leaf litter units) with litter and litter layer
 properties more directly related to habitat quality (e.g., moisture
 regime, habitat space).  We tested the concept by using 16 woody
 species commonly observed in NW Europe, and examined how different traits
 or trait axes determine the litter and litter layer properties directly
 related to habitat quality for soil animals. In addition, we assessed in a
 field experiment with litter layers in mesocosms how this new trait
 framework explains the soil invertebrate community as an actual example of
 linking litter traits and host function to other organisms.  The
 two plant trait spectra together accounted for &gt; 60% of the
 variance in litter quality in a principal component analysis. SSS-related
 traits strongly explained litter layer habitat-related properties, such as
 water-holding capacity and litter bulk density. The SSS axis and these
 SSS-associated properties more strongly determined soil animal communities
 assembled over seven weeks in the field experiment, surpassing the effects
 of the PES axis.  Synthesis. This study has provided the first
 empirical evidence for the litter trait space defined by both SSS and PES
 spectra occupied by wide-ranging plant species, and its utility to explain
 litter layer properties related to the physical environment and associated
 habitat provisioning function. We suggest that this trait-based SSS-PES
 framework will help us to disentangle mechanisms underpinning real-world
 interactions between aboveground vegetation and belowground communities.
description: # Data from: Effects of two key plant trait spectra on litter layer
 properties and habitat provision functions Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t74](10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t74) ## Description of the
 data and file structure ### litter_variables sheet The data sheet of
 litter variables includes all litter variables, including litter traits,
 single litter and litter pack properties, of the plant species we used in
 the study.  Chemical traits include * nitrogen content (% of dry mass), *
 phosphorus content (% of dry mass), * tannin content (% of dry mass), *
 lignin content (mg g^-1^), * carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N), and * pH.
 Physical traits include * leaf area (cm^2^), * leaf volume (cm^3^), * leaf
 thickness (mm), * leaf curliness (mm), * specific leaf area (SLA, cm^2^
 g^-1^), * leaf tissue density (LTD, mg cm^-3^), * leaf dry matter content
 (LDMC, mg g^-1^), * leaf dissection index (DI), and * petiole width (mm).
 PC1 and PC2 are the first and second axis of a principal component
 analysis (PCA) using these chemical and physical traits of single litter
 particles. Single litter and litter pack properties include litter drying
 rate (LDR) after water saturation, change in curliness with drying after
 water saturation (mm), litter bulk density (g cm^-3^), LDR of litter pack
 after water saturation and change in litter bulk density with drying after
 water saturation (g cm^-3^). Abbreviations of single litter and litter
 pack properties are as follows: * LDR_litter = litter drying rate of
 single litter particle, * LDR_litterpack = litter drying rate of litter
 pack, * Curliness_temp = temporal variability in curliness, *
 Litter_density = litter bulk density, * Litter_density_temp = temporal
 variability in litter bulk density. * Species ID is an abbreviation of
 each woody species name.  ### community_data sheet The data sheet
 of community data includes abundance data of each soil animal taxon, the
 total abundance of all taxa, mesofauna and macrofauna, and taxa richness
 of each container in the litter incubation experiment. Macrofauna taxa
 includes Araneae, Chilopoda, Coleoptera, Coleoptera larvae, Diplopoda,
 Diptera larvae, Hemiptera, Isopoda, Lepidoptera larvae and Opiliones,
 while mesofauna includes Astigmata, Collembola, Mesostigmata, Oribatida,
 Prostigmata and Pseudoscorpiones. Core_area means each container size
 (cm^2^) incorporated as an offset term in generalised linear mixed model
 (GLMM). Species ID is generally just an abbreviation of each woody species
 name, but there are exeptions: LCB = *C. betulus* in large-size containers
 (see SI. 2), SCB = *C. betulus* in small-size containers, LTD = *T.
 distichum *in large-size containers, and STD = *T. distichum *in
 small-size containers. ### SI1_curliness and SI1_litter_bulk_density
 sheets The data sheets of SI1_curliness and SI1_litter_bulk_density
 include the raw data for the figures in the support information, which
 describe the change in curliness (after 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h) and
 litter bulk density of litter packs (0, 3, 6, 9, 27, 51 and 75 h) after
 water saturation.  Species are shown in abbreviations of woody species
 names. Rep shows replications in each data set. Type shows AD (Angiosperm
 Deciduous), AE (Angiosperm Evergreen), GD (Gymnosperm Deciduous) and GE
 (Gymnosperm Evergreen).