Stem decomposition of temperate tree species is determined by stem traits and fungal community composition during early stem decay

Dead trees are vital structural elements in forests playing key roles in the carbon and nutrient cycle. Stem traits and fungal community composition are both important drivers of stem decay, and thereby affect ecosystem functioning, but their relative importance for stem decomposition over time remains unclear.
To address this issue, we used a common garden decomposition experiment in a Dutch larch forest hosting fresh logs from 13 common temperate tree species. In total 25 fresh wood and bark traits were measured as indicators of wood accessibility for decomposers, nutritional quality, and chemical or physical defense mechanisms. After one and four years of decay, we assessed the richness and composition of wood-inhabiting fungi using amplicon sequencing and determined the proportional wood density loss.
Average proportional wood density loss for the first year was 18.5%, with further decomposition occurring at a rate of 4.3% yr-1 for the subsequent three years across tree species. Pro..., We took advantage of the LOGLIFE project (Cornelissen et al. 2012), in which freshly cut stems of 13 temperate tree species were left to decompose in a common garden experiment. Ten tree species were incubated in February 2012, and three tree species were added in February 2015. Firstly, five individual trees were cut for each tree species and distributed to five blocks (i.e. forest plots) to decay. From trunk parts without major side branches five logs were cut per individual tree and treated as replicates, each with 1 m length and a diameter of 25 ± 3 cm, thus assuring a similar exposed stem cross-sectional area and substrate volume accessible to decomposers. These logs obtained from the same tree shared similar physical-chemical traits. One of the five logs was randomly harvested after one and four years of decay, respectively, and used for wood density measurement and molecular sampling. Corresponding data are archived here., , # Stem decomposition of temperate tree species is determined by stem traits and fungal community composition during early stem decay

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5pw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5pw)

## Description of the data and file structure

The dataset consists of three files, including:

1. \"Data.xlsx\", consists of five sheets

a) Sheet1 is the basic information of the data

b) Sheet “Data1” is used to plot Fig. 1 (Proportional wood density loss varies across 13 tree species at two decay periods, the first year T0-T1 (WDL01) and three follow-up years T1-T4.)

c) Sheet “Data2&3” are used to plot Fig. 2 (Principal component analyses showing the associations among multiple wood and bark traits of 13 tree species and showing how wood-inhabiting fungi vary among 13 tree species at two decaying periods: T1 and T4.)

d) Sheet “Data4” is used to plot Fig. 3 (Relationships between proportional density loss of 13 tree species and wood and bark trait v...