DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xfw
title: Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry

description: Forty percent of terrestrial ecosystems require recurrent fires driven by
 feedbacks between fire and plant fuels. The accumulation of fine fuels in
 these ecosystems play a key role in fire intensity, which alters soil
 nutrients and shapes soil microbial and plant community responses to fire.
 Changes to post-fire plant fuel production are well known to feed back to
 future fires, but post-fire decomposition of new fuels is poorly
 understood. Our study sought to quantify how pre-fire fuel loading
 influenced post-fire fuel decomposition through soil abiotic properties,
 as well as plant and soil fungal communities. Prior to spring prescribed
 burns, we manipulated fine fuel loads in plots, both near (&lt;10 m)
 and away (&gt;10 m) from overstory pines, to modify soil heating in an
 old-growth longleaf pine savanna. We then assessed how fuel load and soil
 heating influenced post-fire plant fuel decomposition through changes to
 soil chemistry, vegetation, and fungi. Burning larger fuel loads made
 fires hotter, burn longer, and more completely combusted fuels. In these
 plots, decomposition of newly deposited fine fuels was slower in the eight
 months following fire. Decomposition changes from greater soil heating
 were mediated by greater shifts to postfire plant (2 and 4 months
 postfire) and fungal communities (4 and 6 months postfire). Soil
 properties (C:N ratios, soil pH, and P) controlled postfire decomposition
 throughout the year, but weakly responded to soil heating differences from
 fuels. Since the mechanisms for fuel effects on decomposition change over
 time, fire timing may be a future target for understanding fire feedbacks
 to fuel decomposition. Integrating these feedbacks with fuel production
 responses across fire-dependent ecosystems can help managers better set
 prescribed fire intervals and predict responses to reintroducing burning
 in fire-suppressed ecosystems.
description: # Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through
 soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xfw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xfw) ## Description of the data and file structure Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry Science of the Total Environment Dr. Jacob. R. Hopkins, Dr. Tatiana A. Semenova-Nelsen, Dr. Jean M. Huffman, Neil J. Jones, Dr. Kevin M. Robertson, Dr. William J. Platt, and Dr. Benjamin A. Sikes soil-fire-decomp-diversity_data.csv contains soil, fire characteristic, decomposition, and biotic diversity data from the experiment. plant-community_data.csv contains post-fire plant community composition data from experimental plots. fungal-community_data.csv contains fungal community composition data from pre and post 2017 prescribed fires. fungal-taxonomy_data.csv contains the corresponding fungal taxonomy information for ASVs in fungal-community_data.csv. sem_data.csv contains the collated data used for the structural equation modeling analyses in the experiment. * soil-fire-decomp-diversity_data.csv: soil and fire characteristic data from experiment. plotno: plot ID treatment: fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: unburned = no fire, Removal = fine fuels removed from plot, reference = average fuel load for Wade Tract, Switch = proportion of grass and pine needle fuels swapped between near/away plots, Add1X = amount of pine needle fuels doubled in plot, Add2X = amount of pine needle fuels quadrupled in plot) sev.tre: numerical coding for fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: 0 = unburned, 1 = Removal, 2 = reference, 3 = Switch, 4 = Add1X, and 5 = Add2X) pine: proximity to overstory longleaf pine trees (away = &gt;10m from overstory pines, near = &lt;10m from overstory pines) pine.code: numerical coding for pine proximity treatment (0 = away, 1 = near) prepost: time samples were collected (pre = prior to 2017 prescribed fires, post = after 2017 prescribed fires) soillitter: fungal community type (litter = litter fungal community sample, soil = soil fungal community sample) mon2_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 2 collection time mon2_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 2 collection time mon4_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 4 collection time mon4_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 4 collection time mon6_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 6 collection time mon6_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 6 collection time mon8_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 8 collection time mon8_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 8 collection time totp: total inorganic phosphorus extracted using Mehlich's 3 method (ppm) nh4: soil ammonium levels (ppm) no3: soil nitrate levels (ppm) totn: total soil nitrogen (%) totc: total soil carbon (%) cn: soil carbon to nitrogen ratio pH: soil pH combustion: percent mass loss of fuels to 2017 prescribed fire (%) SurfPeak: maximum instantaneous change in surface temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C) SurfDurSec: surface temperature durations &gt;60C (seconds) SoilPeak: maximum instantaneous change in soil temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C) pca1: fungal community PCA axis 1 value pca2: fungal community PCA axis 2 value comp.invsimp: inverse Simpson diversity metric for fungal community composition comp.shannon: Shannon's diversity metric for fungal community composition plant.shannon: Shannon's diveristy metric for plant community composition plant.rich: plant species richness (# of species present in plot) plant.pcoa1: plant community PCoA axis 1 value plant.pcoa2: plant community PCoA axis 2 value note that "null" values represent missing data points or data not collected prior to 2017 prescribed fires * plant-community_data.csv: 2017 post-fire plant community composition data from experimental plots plot: plot ID treatment: fuel manipulation treatment (U = no fire, Rem = fuel removal, Ref = average fuel load for Wade Tract, Swap = proportion of grass and pine needle fuels swapped between near/away plots, 1X = amount of pine needle fuels doubled in plot, 2X = amount of pine needle fuels quadrupled in plot) pines: proximity to overstory longleaf pine trees (away = &gt;10m from overstory pines, near = &lt;10m from overstory pines) side: fire management unit (E = Eastern unit, W = Western unit) patch: experimental patch number remaining columsn: plant species presence/absence for each plot * fungal-community_data.csv: 2017 pre- and post-fire fungal community composition data from experimental plots sample: sample ID; ID contains plot number, fuel manipulation treatment, pine proximity, community type, and collection time information remaining columns: fungal amplicon sequence variance counts for each experimental plot * fungal-taxonomy_data.csv: taxonomy information for fungal community samples Feature ID: amplicon sequence variant ID kingdon: kingdom level classification for ASV phylum: phylum level classification for ASV class: class level classification for ASV order: order level classification for ASV family: family level classification for ASV genus: genus level classification for ASV species: species level classification for ASV note that "null" imply classification information is not availabe at that level for ASV * sem_data.csv: collated experimental data for structural equation modeling analyses plotno: plot ID treatment: fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: unburned = no fire, Removal = fine fuels removed from plot, reference = average fuel load for Wade Tract, Switch = proportion of grass and pine needle fuels swapped between near/away plots, Add1X = amount of pine needle fuels doubled in plot, Add2X = amount of pine needle fuels quadrupled in plot) sev.tre: numerical coding for fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: 0 = unburned, 1 = Removal, 2 = reference, 3 = Switch, 4 = Add1X, and 5 = Add2X) pine: proximity to overstory longleaf pine trees (away = &gt;10m from overstory pines, near = &lt;10m from overstory pines) pine.code: numerical coding for pine proximity treatment (0 = away, 1 = near) mon2_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 2 collection time mon2_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 2 collection time mon4_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 4 collection time mon4_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 4 collection time mon6_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 6 collection time mon6_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 6 collection time mon8_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 8 collection time mon8_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 8 collection time totp: total inorganic phosphorus extracted using Mehlich's 3 method (ppm) nh4: soil ammonium levels (ppm) no3: soil nitrate levels (ppm) totn: total soil nitrogen (%) totc: total soil carbon (%) cn: soil carbon to nitrogen ratio pH: soil pH combustion: percent mass loss of fuels to 2017 prescribed fire (%) SurfPeak: maximum instantaneous change in surface temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C) SurfDurSec: surface temperature durations &gt;60C (seconds) SoilPeak: maximum instantaneous change in soil temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C) soil_pca1: soil fungal community PCA axis 1 value soil_pca2: soil fungal community PCA axis 2 value soil_comp.invsimp: inverse Simpson diversity metric for soil fungal community composition litt_pca1: litter fungal community PCA axis 1 value litt_pca2: litter fungal community PCA axis 2 value litt_comp.invsimp: inverse Simpson diversity metric for litter fungal community composition plant.rich: plant species richness (# of species present in plot) plant.pcoa1: plant community PCoA axis 1 value plant.pcoa2: plant community PCoA axis 2 value krate2: 2 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples krate4: 4 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples krate6: 6 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples krate8: 8 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples