DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt1r
title: Data for: Rewilding soil and litter invertebrates and fungi increases decomposition rates and alters detritivore communities

description: Habitat degradation and associated reductions in ecosystem functions can
 be reversed by reintroducing or ‘rewilding’ keystone species. Rewilding
 projects have historically targeted restoration of processes such as
 grazing regimes or top-down predation effects. Few projects focus on
 restoring decomposition efficiency, despite the pivotal role decomposition
 plays in global carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. Here, we tested
 whether rewilding entire communities of detritivorous invertebrates and
 fungi can improve litter decomposition efficiency and restore detritivore
 communities during ecological restoration. Rewilding was conducted by
 transplanting leaf litter and soil, including associated invertebrate and
 fungal communities from species-rich remnant sites into species-poor, and
 geographically isolated, revegetated farmland sites in a temperate
 woodland region of southeastern Australia. We compared communities in
 sites under the following treatments: remnant (conservation area and
 source of litter transplant), rewilded revegetation (revegetated farmland
 site with litter transplant), and control revegetation (revegetated site,
 no transplant). In one ‘before’ and three ‘after’ sampling periods, we
 measured litter decomposition and the abundance and diversity of
 detritivorous invertebrates and fungi. We quantified the effect of
 detritivores on the rate of litter decomposition using piecewise
 Structural Equation Modelling. Decomposition was significantly faster in
 rewilding sites than in both control and remnant areas, and was largely
 driven by a greater abundance of invertebrate detritivores. Similarly, the
 abundance of invertebrate detritivores in rewilding revegetation sites
 exceeded the level of remnant communities, whereas there was little
 difference between control and remnant sites. In contrast, rewilding did
 not increase saprotrophic fungi relative abundance/diversity and there was
 no strong relationship between decomposition and fungal diversity. Our
 findings suggest the relatively simple act of transplanting leaf litter
 and soil can increase functional efficiency during restoration and alter
 community composition. Our methods may prove important across a range of
 contexts where other restoration methods have failed to restore ecosystem
 processes to pre-degradation levels.
description: This dataset is part of a long term study, examining the effect
 of litter and soil transplants on invertebrates and microbes. To process
 invertebrate detritivores, we took litter samples and ran them through
 tullgren funnels at 3 different time points after the initial litter and
 soil transplants. To process fungal saprotrophs, we took soil samples in
 conjuction with the invertebrate samples. All steps in data processing are
 listed in the 'code.R' file.
description: # Data for: Rewilding soil and litter invertebrates and fungi increases
 decomposition rates and alters detritivore communities
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt1r](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt1r) This dataset contains a suite of environmental measurements, decomposition measurements, and community matrices for invertebrate and fungal detritivores. Data were collected at four time points, once pre-rewilding, and three times post-rewilding. We found that rewilding detritivore communities via soil and litter transplants increased the number of invertebrate detritivores, which had cascading effects on decomposition rates. ## Description of the data and file structure The dataset contains various .csv files that link to the `code.R` file. Within the `code.R` file, there are lines of codes that detail the analyses of each figure in the manuscript. Metadata for field sites can be found in the `metadata.csv` file, which documents geographic location of each site in WGS 84. --- The first portion of this code is the analyses of decomposition rates found in Figure 3 of the manuscript. This code is working off the file labelled `decomposition.csv`. Columns are labelled as: * "Site" : Site replicates for each treatment, there are 6 sites within each treatment * "Treatment" : One of three treatments: "Control", "Rewilding transplant", "Remnant", see manuscript for definitions * "Distance" : The distance the decomposition measurements were taken from the experimental grid. Either 'Near' (2 m), or 'Far' (10 m) * "Time" : One of 3 sessions the measurements were taken in: 3 months post-rewilding, 19 months post-rewilding, or 35 months post-rewilding * "Mass Loss" : The % mass lost from each litter bag after 3 months in the field --- The second portion of this code is the analyses of abundance and diversity of invertebrates and fungi found in Figure 4 of the manuscript. This code is working off two files. The first concerns invertebrate detritivores and is labelled `invertebrate_detritivores.csv`. Columns are labelled as: * "Site" : Site replicates for each treatment, there are 6 sites within each treatment * "Treatment" : One of three treatments: "Control", "Rewilding transplant", "Remnant", see manuscript for definitions * "Time" : One of 4 sessions the measurements were taken in: Pre-rewilding, 3 months post-rewilding, 19 months post-rewilding, or 35 months post-rewilding * "Invertebrate abundance" : A count of invertebrate detritivores found at each site * "Invertebrate richness" : The number of invertebrate detritivore species found at each site. The second file concerns fungal saprotrophs and is labelled `fungal_saprotrophs.csv`. Columns are labelled as: * "Site" : Site replicates for each treatment, there are 6 sites within each treatment * "Treatment" : One of three treatments: "Control", "Rewilding transplant", "Remnant", see manuscript for definitions * "Time" : One of 4 sessions the measurements were taken in: Pre-rewilding, 3 months post-rewilding, 19 months post-rewilding, or 35 months post-rewilding * "Fungi abundance" : Relative abundance of fungal saprotrophs found at each site * "Fungi diversity" : Diversity of fungal saprotrophs found at each site. --- The third portion of this code is the HMSC analyses of invertebrate morphospecies responses found in Figure 5 of the manuscript. This code is working off four files, each set up in the same manner: `community_matrix_prerewilding.csv`, `community_matrix_3months.csv`, `community_matrix_19months.csv`, `community_matrix_35months.csv`. Columns are labelled as: * "Site" : Site replicates for each treatment, there are 6 sites within each treatment * "Treatment" : One of three treatments: "Control", "Rewilding transplant", "Remnant", see manuscript for definitions * "Temperature" : The temperature in Celcius at each site over 3 months * "Humidity" : The % humidity at each site over 3 months * Remaining columns are species data To construct Figure S3, repeat the code above but use the files found in the `fungal ASV communities`. --- The fourth portion of this code is the Structural Equation Modelling analyses found in Figure 6 of the manuscript. This code is working off the `sem_data.csv` file. Columns are labelled as: * "Site" : Site replicates for each treatment, there are 6 sites within each treatment * "Treatment" : One of three treatments: "Control", "Rewilding transplant", "Remnant", see manuscript for definitions * "Treatment ordinal" : Treatments as ordinal variables - Control = 1, Rewilding transplant = 2, Remnant = 3. * "Time" : One of 3 sessions the measurements were taken in: 3 months post-rewilding, 19 months post-rewilding, or 35 months post-rewilding * "Temp" : The temperature in Celcius at each site over 3 months * "Humidity" : The % humidity at each site over 3 months * "Abundance" : The abundance of invertebrate detritivores found at each site * "Breakdown" : The % mass lost from each litter bag after 3 months in the field * "Litter cover" : The % of litter cover found at each site * "sap diversity" : Diversity of fungal saprotrophs found at each site * "Meso abundance" : Abundance of mesoarthropod detritivores found at each site (only present for 19 months post-rewilding) ## Code/Software The code required for analyses of each section of this manuscript is documented in the R file `code.R`.