Data and R code for Flow intermittence alters carbon processing in rivers through chemical diversification of leaf litter

Complete dataset and R code to replicate results from the paper "Flow intermittence alters carbon processing in rivers through chemical diversification of leaf litter" published in Limnology and Oceanography Letters. See metadata.pdf file for description of the experimental design and methods and Rcode_readme.txt for explanations about the R code used to get results and figures of the manuscript. General description: This work compiles laboratory and field experiments used to test the hypothesis that environmental heterogeneity during the drying phase of intermittent rivers can promote a chemical diversification of leaf litter, and therefore alter its aquatic decomposition after flow resumption. In a first experimental phase, we exposed leaf litter (alder, Alnus glutinosa) to various environmental conditions in the laboratory simulating typical habitats of drying rivers (dry riverbeds exposed to solar radiation, wet and shaded riverbeds, different types of isolated pools, etc.). Afterwards, we measured the leaf litter content in C, N, P, Ca, Mg, K, and macromolecular organic C moieties by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to study the effect of preconditioning on leaf litter chemistry. In a second stage, we combined leaf litter from the different preconditioning treatments to create leaf mixtures within a gradient of treatment richness (from single treatments to mixtures of 2-, 4- and 6-treatments). We used fine and coarse mesh-bags containing single treatments and leaf mixtures to measure leaf decomposition in a river. To study aquatic decomposition, we measured leaf mass loss, fungal biomass as ergosterol and shredder density. In parallel, we incubated leaf litter in bottles in a respiration assay in the laboratory to measure microbial respiration rates. Finally, we used the chemical traits measured in preconditioned leaves to estimate chemical composition and diversity of all litterbags by using community-weighted means and RaoQ diversity, respectively.