DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxdh3
title: Data for: Spatial variability in the contribution of termites to the decay of plant detritus

description: Drylands are characterized by high spatial variability in resource
 availability due to sporadic rainfall, topography of the landscape and
 important effects of animals. Resource availability gradients may trigger
 patterns in decomposer population abundances and activity which could
 affect ecosystem functions such as decomposition. Here, we examined the
 influence of resource availability gradients on the importance of termites
 in the decomposition of wood and grass litter. We placed wood blocks and
 grass litter baits in bags accessible and inaccessible to termites across
 wood and grass resource gradients as determined by the presence or absence
 of a top mammalian predator and across topographic gradients during a
 9-month period in arid Australia. We hypothesized that grass-eating
 termite activity would track grass abundance and wood-eating termite
 activity would track wood abundance. Termites were the predominant
 decomposition agent at these sites. Termites contributed to 99.5% of wood
 decomposition and 83.9% of grass decomposition during our study period.
 For wood, the termite effect was spatially variable and increased with
 habitat wood availability which was greatest on dunes and where top
 predators were absent. However, the contribution of termites to grass
 litter decomposition did not track grass availability or termite
 abundance. The highest effects of termites on grass decomposition rates
 were found in habitats where the absence of top predators led to low grass
 availability. Our findings highlight how spatial variability in resources
 in addition to other factors that we do not document but are known to be
 influenced by the presence of top predators, such as insectivore predation
 rates, across the landscape could affect ecosystem functions such as
 decomposition.  
description: The precise method for how the data was collected can be found in
 the article presenting the data. 
description: Description of columns for each dataset found in this Dryad repository.
 The code necessary to run the anlyses and plot the graphs can be found in
 the file "clean_script_publish.Rmd". The different datasets
 descrobe decomposition rates of wood and grass litter over a 9 month
 period in an Australian arid ecossystem in addition to termite abundances
 and vegetation surveys. Dataset: decompt_woodgrass_weight.csv Columns: *
 tag: individual ID of litter bag * substrate: type of litter (wood or
 grass) * transect: dune or swale ID sampled * state: side of the fence
 (NSW = dingo absent, SA = dingo present) * set: station number * habitat:
 topographic position * treatment: type of litter bag (exclude =
 inaccessible to termtes, open = accessible to termites) * termites:
 discovred by termites or not (Y = yes, N = no) * ternum: numerical termite
 discovery (1 = discovered by termites, 2 = not discovered by termites) *
 initwweight: initial wet weight of litter in grams * initdweight: initial
 dry weight of litter in grams * finalwweight: final wet weight of litter
 after being harvested in grams * finaldweight: final dry weight of litter
 after being harvested in grams * finalpropmassloss: proportion mass loss
 of litter Dataset: veg_time_terdingo_final.csv Columns: * transect: dune
 or swale ID sampled * survey: indication of whether the decomposition
 experiment was run on the dune (y if decomposition was run) * state: side
 of the fence (nsw = dingo absent, sa = dingo present) * habitat:
 topographic position * grassdead: percentage cover of dead grass *
 shrubdead: percentage cover of dead wood * proptermiteswood: average
 percentage of wood consumed by termites * proptermitesgrass: average
 percentgae of grass consumed by termites Empty cells represent sample IDs
 with no measured variable. Dataset: terproj_final.csv Columns: * ID:
 individual ID of sample * Transect: dune or swale ID sampled * State: side
 of the fence (NSW = dingo absent, SA = dingo present) * Habitat:
 topographic position * woodsamp: number of wood samples with termites
 under * grasssamp: number of grass clumps with termites under * hetero:
 number of occurences of Heterotermes spp. * micro: number of occurences of
 Microcerotermes spp. * ami: number of occurences of Amitermes spp. *
 nasut: number of occurences of Nasutitermes spp. Dataset:
 grass_cons_ter_final.csv Columns: * transect: dune or swale ID sampled *
 state: side of the fence (NSW = dingo absent, SA = dingo present) * set:
 station number * habitat: topographic position * termasslossperc: termite
 consumption of grass in percentages Dataset: wood_cons_ter_final.csv
 Columns: * transect: dune or swale ID sampled * state: side of the fence
 (NSW = dingo absent, SA = dingo present) * set: station number * habitat:
 topographic position * termasslossperc: termite consumption of wood in
 percentages