Data from: Higher fungal diversity is correlated with lower CO2 emissions from dead wood in a natural forest

Wood decomposition releases almost as much CO2 to the atmosphere as does
fossil-fuel combustion, so the factors regulating wood decomposition can
affect global carbon cycling. We used metabarcoding to estimate the fungal
species diversities of naturally colonized decomposing wood in subtropical
China and, for the first time, compared them to concurrent measures of CO2
emissions. Wood hosting more diverse fungal communities emitted less CO2,
with Shannon diversity explaining 26 to 44% of emissions variation.
Community analysis supports a ‘pure diversity’ effect of fungi on
decomposition rates and thus suggests that interference competition is an
underlying mechanism. Our findings extend the results of published
experiments using low-diversity, laboratory-inoculated wood to a
high-diversity, natural system. We hypothesize that high levels of
saprotrophic fungal biodiversity could be providing globally important
ecosystem services by maintaining dead-wood habitats and by slowing the
atmospheric contribution of CO2 from the world’s stock of decomposing
wood. However, large-scale surveys and controlled experimental tests in
natural settings will be needed to test this hypothesis.