DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxq1n
title: Initial litter quality and climate regulate the negative effects of fauna exclusion on litter decomposition in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems: A global meta-analysis of enclosure studies

description: Although the exclusion effects of faunal decomposers on litter
 decomposition have been extensively studied in different experimental
 contexts, a thorough comparison of the exclusion effects of faunal
 decomposers with different body sizes on litter decomposition and its
 possible regulatory factors in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is still
 lacking. Here, through a meta-analysis of 1207 pairs of observations from
 110 studies in terrestrial ecosystems and 473 pairs of observations from
 60 studies in aquatic ecosystems, we found that fauna exclusion reduced
 litter decomposition rates in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by 30%
 and 44% on average, respectively. At the global scale, the exclusion
 effects of macrofauna and mesofauna on litter decomposition rates (reduced
 by 38% and 36%, respectively) were greater than that of the combination of
 macrofauna and mesofauna (reduced by 30%). In terrestrial and aquatic
 ecosystems, the effects of fauna exclusion on litter decomposition rates
 were mainly regulated by climate and initial litter quality, but the
 effects of fauna exclusion with different body sizes were differently
 regulated by climate, initial litter quality, and abiotic environmental
 variables. These findings will help us better understand the role of
 faunal decomposers on litter decomposition, especially for faunal
 decomposers with different body sizes, and underscore the need to
 incorporate faunal decomposers with different body sizes into dynamic
 models of litter decomposition to examine the potential effects and
 regulatory mechanisms of land-water-atmosphere carbon fluxes.
description: # Initial litter quality and climate regulate the negative effects of
 fauna exclusion on litter decomposition in terrestrial and aquatic
 ecosystems: A global meta-analysis of enclosure studies The dataset
 contains 58 variables used in this meta-Analysis. "NA" in the
 dataset indicate missing data for relevant variable. Column Units
 Description Author, -- Author for reference Country, -- Country for site
 ID, -- Unique ID for each reference exp_site, -- Unique ID for each site
 in reference observations, -- Unique ID for each study in reference
 latitude, °N or °S Latitude for site longitude, °E or °W Longitude for
 site Alt, m Altitude for site MAT, °C Mean annual temperature MAP, mm Mean
 annual precipitation pre_level, -- Precipitation levels SOC, g kg-1 Soil
 organic carbon STN, g kg-1 Total soil nitrogen Soil_C:N, -- Soil C:N ratio
 PH, -- Soil pH Water_temperature, °C Water temperature Dissolved_O2, mg
 l-1 Levels of dissolved oxygen in water Conductivity, μ s-1 cm-1 Water
 conductivity NO3--N, mg l-1 Nitrate nitrogen in water NH4--N, mg l-1
 Ammonia nitrogen in water Soluble_reactive_P, μg l-1 Soluble reactive
 phosphorus in water Biome, -- Types of terrestrial ecosystems (forest;
 cropland; grassland) ecosystem, -- Ecosystem types (aquatic and
 terrestrial) climate.zones, -- Climatic zones fine.mesh, um "Mesh
 size of fauna excluded" coarse.mesh, um "Mesh size of fauna
 included" mesh.class, -- Mesh size levels of the paired litterbags
 fauna.exclusion.types, -- Types of excluded fauna based on the mesh size
 of the paired litterbags litterbags_size, cm2 Area of litter bag
 Study_length, day Decomposition duration length_level, -- Decomposition
 duration levels in terrestrial ecosystem Alength_level, -- Decomposition
 duration levels in aquatic ecosystem harvesting_times, -- Numbers of
 litterbags were harvested initail_mass, g Initial mass of litter
 Plant_species, -- Name of plant species litter_form, -- Forms of litter
 contained in the litter bag litter_type, -- Types of litter contained in
 the litter bag growth_form, -- Types of plant that produces litter
 placement, -- Placements of litterbags Plant_C, % Initial carbon content
 of litter Plant_N, % Initial nitrogen content of litter Plant_P, % Initial
 phosphorus content of litter Plant_C:N, % Initial litter C:N ratio
 Plant_C:P, % Initial litter C:P ratio Plant_N:P, % Initial litter N:P
 ratio Plant_Lignin, % Initial lignin content of litter Plant_Lignin:N, %
 Initial litter lignin:N ratio Plant_Cellulose, % Initial cellulose content
 of litter Plant_HemiC, % Initial hemicellulose content of litter
 Plant_Polyphenols, % Initial phenol content of litter K_cm day-1 Litter
 decomposition coefficient for litterbag in the fauna included K_fm, day-1
 Litter decomposition coefficient for litterbag in the fauna excluded
 Kcm.sd, -- Standard deviation of litter decomposition coefficient for
 litterbag in the fauna included Kfm.sd, -- Standard deviation of litter
 decomposition coefficient for litterbag in the fauna excluded cm.r, --
 Number of replicates for litterbag in the fauna included fm.r, -- Number
 of replicates for litterbag in the fauna excluded yi, -- Natural
 logarithmic response ratio (lnRR) wi -- Weight ## Code/Software Any
 scripts,code, packages can be run using R version 4.2.1 (R Core Team,
 2022).