Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry

Forty percent of terrestrial ecosystems require recurrent fires driven by feedbacks between fire and plant fuels. The accumulation of fine fuels in these ecosystems play a key role in fire intensity, which alters soil nutrients and shapes soil microbial and plant community responses to fire. Changes to post-fire plant fuel production are well known to feed back to future fires, but post-fire decomposition of new fuels is poorly understood. Our study sought to quantify how pre-fire fuel loading influenced post-fire fuel decomposition through soil abiotic properties, as well as plant and soil fungal communities. Prior to spring prescribed burns, we manipulated fine fuel loads in plots, both near (<10 m) and away (>10 m) from overstory pines, to modify soil heating in an old-growth longleaf pine savanna. We then assessed how fuel load and soil heating influenced post-fire plant fuel decomposition through changes to soil chemistry, vegetation, and fungi. Burning larger fuel loads made..., , , # Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xfw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xfw)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry

Science of the Total Environment

Dr. Jacob. R. Hopkins, Dr. Tatiana A. Semenova-Nelsen, Dr. Jean M. Huffman, Neil J. Jones, Dr. Kevin M. Robertson,

Dr. William J. Platt, and Dr. Benjamin A. Sikes

soil-fire-decomp-diversity_data.csv contains soil, fire characteristic, decomposition, and biotic diversity data from the experiment.

plant-community_data.csv contains post-fire plant community composition data from experimental plots.

fungal-community_data.csv contains fungal community composition data from pre and post 2017 prescribed fires.

fungal-taxonomy_data.csv contains the corresponding fung...