Traits associated with the conservation gradient are the strongest predictors of early-stage fine root decomposition rates

Fine root traits span two independent axes of variation, the conservation and collaboration axes, which define the root economic space (RES). However, whether early-stage fine root decomposition rates (quantified as proportion mass loss, i.e., pml) are more strongly related to collaboration or conservation traits remains unclear.
We studied 63 tree species in New Zealand's temperate rain forest. We determined the phylogenetic signal in pml and fine root traits, conducted phylogenetic principal component analysis, and used phylogenetic generalized least squares to determine which traits are most strongly related to pml.
Root decomposition exhibited a high phylogenetic signal and was more strongly related to the conservation than the collaboration axis. Root tissue density (RTD) was negatively correlated and root nitrogen (RN) was positively correlated with pml. Root diameter was positively yet weakly correlated with pml, but specific root length was uncorrelated with pml. The lignin-to-N..., , , # Traits associated with the conservation gradient are the strongest predictors of early-stage fine root decomposition rates

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp3g](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp3g)

## Description of the data and file structure

Traits associated with the conservation gradient are the strongest predictors of early-stage fine root decomposition rates.

The dataset presented here was analyzed to support our paper with the title above. In this paper, we found that traits on the conservation axis of the root economics space are more closely related to fine root decomposition than traits on the collaboration axis. We also found that thick-rooted species exhibit faster decomposition due to their higher quality cortical tissues and thin-rooted species with high cellulose content that provide support for small-diameter roots decompose slowly.

The nzRootDecomp.csv file contains the decomposition dataset. The root.trait.means.csv file has the functional root traits da...