DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0rxwdbs5r
title: Data for: Drivers of wood decay in tropical ecosystems: Termites vs. microbes along spatial, temporal and experimental precipitation gradients

description: Models estimating decomposition rates of dead wood across space and time
 are mainly based on studies carried out in temperate zones where microbes
 are dominant drivers of decomposition. However, most dead wood biomass is
 found in tropical ecosystems, where termites are also important wood
 consumers. Given the dependence of microbial decomposition on moisture
 with termite decomposition thought to be more resilient to dry conditions,
 the relative importance of these decomposition agents is expected to shift
 along gradients in precipitation that affect wood moisture. Here, we
 investigated the relative roles of microbes and termites in wood
 decomposition across precipitation gradients in space, time and with a
 simulated drought experiment in tropical Australia. We deployed mesh bags
 with non-native pine wood blocks, allowing termite access to half the
 bags. Bags were collected every six months (end of wet and dry seasons)
 over a four-year period across 5 sites along a rainfall gradient (ranging
 from savanna to wet sclerophyll to rainforest) and within a simulated
 drought experiment at the wettest site. We expected microbial
 decomposition to proceed faster in wet conditions with greater relative
 influence of termites in dry conditions. Consistent with expectations,
 microbial-mediated wood decomposition was slowest in dry savanna sites,
 dry seasons, and simulated drought conditions. Wood blocks discovered by
 termites decomposed 16% to 36% faster than blocks undiscovered by termites
 regardless of precipitation levels. Concurrently, termites were 10 times
 more likely to discover wood in dry savanna compared with wet rainforest
 sites, compensating for slow microbial decomposition in savannas. For wood
 discovered by termites, seasonality and drought did not significantly
 affect decomposition rates. Taken together, we found that spatial and
 seasonal variation in precipitation are important in shaping wood
 decomposition rates as driven by termites and microbes, although these
 different gradients do not equally impact decomposition agents. As we
 better understand how climate change will affect precipitation regimes
 across the tropics, our results can improve predictions of how wood
 decomposition agents will shift with potential for altering carbon fluxes.
description: Script provided with the data to run in R.
description: This repository contains a data file "decomp_data.csv" and the
 script used to plot graphs and run the analysis
 "script_paper_pines.Rmd" which can be opened in RStudio. The
 dataset describes decomposition rates of pine wood blocks across 4 years
 and 6 sites in tropical Australia, column are as follows: * site = site of
 samples * station = location of wood block within site * season_condition
 = season at time of collection * treatment = holes on the bottom of bag or
 not, TE = termite excluded (no holes), TI = termite included (holes) *
 harvest_number = session in which block was harvested * sample_id = unique
 identifier of wood block * init_wt = initial weight in grams *
 deployment_date = date at which block was set out * harvest_date = date at
 which block was harvested * dry_wt = weight in grams at collection after
 being processed * mass_remaining = proportion mass remaining compared with
 original weight of block * termite_disc = whether block was discovered by
 termites or not * FMC = moisture content of wood in % NA cells refer to
 cells where no values are available.