Faster than expected: Release of nitrogen and phosphorus from decomposing woody litter

Deadwood represents globally important carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus pools. Current wood nutrient dynamics models are extensions of those developed for leaf litter decomposition. However, tissue structure and dominant decomposers differ between leaf and woody litter, and recent evidence suggests that decomposer stoichiometry in combination with litter quality may affect nutrient release.
We quantified decomposition and release of carbon and nutrients from woody litter for two stem sizes of 22 tree species in a phosphorus-limited temperate forest near Sydney, Australia and compared these to estimates from leaf litter literature.
Following theory, nitrogen and phosphorus accumulated during early decomposition, but began to decline earlier than expected based on work in leaves. Woody litter converged on higher carbon:nitrogen (50) and nitrogen:phosphorus (80) ratios than in leaf litter studies. Carbon:nitrogen at which nitrogen was released was higher in larger stems (~135) than smaller..., Briefly, wood blocks from 22 species were set out to decay over 5 years during which nutrient and carbon contents were collected at regular time intervals. , , # Data from: Faster than expected: Release of nitrogen and phosphorus from decomposing woody litter

This repository contains the code and data for the paper entitled \"Faster than expected: Release of nitrogen and phosphorus from decomposing woody litter\"

## Files in Repository

The repository contains the following data files:

* `traitdat_final.csv`: This file contains the trait data for the 22 tree species used in the study. The columns are as follows:
* `unique`: Unique identifier for the piece of wood
* `code`: Species the stem belongs to (larger size stem if it is in capital letters)
* `codeStem`: The stem that the piece of wood belonged to
* `hostSpecies`: Species the stem belongs to
* `size`: size of the stem
* `time`: time of harvest (in months)
* `trait`: nutrient for which the measurement is made (N = Nitrogen (%), C = Carbon (%), P = Phosphorus (ppm))
* `trait.val`: value of the measurement (% for N and C, ppm for P)
* `mass_remain.csv`: This file contains t...