Raw data of the microarthropods and decomposition from: Effects of microarthropod density on soil fungal community composition in nutrient-poor ecosystems

Microarthropods such as mites (Acari) and springtails (Collembola) play a key role in the functioning of nutrient-poor ecosystems. They contribute to the comminution of organic matter and they are likely to affect the structure and function of soil microbial communities through grazing and by changing substrate availability. However, the precise effects of their interactions with microbiota remain poorly understood. In the present study, we conducted a mesocosm field experiment to determine the effects of soil microarthropod density on community composition of soil fungi. We manipulated microarthropod densities in 100 defaunated and soil-filled meshed mesocosms by inoculating half of the units with microarthropods (i.e. high density treatment), while the other half of the units only contained few specimens possibly hatching from recalcitrant eggs that survived defaunation (i.e. low density treatment). All mesocosms were then inserted in the top soil of a range of nutrient-poor grassland..., This dataset was collected during a three-month mesocosm experiment taking place in different nutrient-poor habitats (heathland, Nardus grassland, and restored grassland). It includes data on the number of microarthropods (mites and springtails) for three treatment levels i.e. low density, high density, and reference, and the decomposition outcomes for two litter types i.e. heather and cellulose. We verified whether the inoculated (treatment H) and control (treatment L) mesocosms indeed differed in microarthropod density, using a generalized linear model using Poisson regression or quasipoisson regression for over-dispersed data; sites 4 (grassland) and 10 (heathland) (7 samples each) were excluded from further data analysis due to errors in the inoculation processes. For the decomposition experiment we calculated weight loss after three months of the two incubated organic matter types, after which we  estimated decomposition rates using the first order decay constant (k).
The effects o..., , # Raw data of the microarthropods and decomposition from: Effects of microarthropod density on soil fungal community composition in nutrient-poor ecosystems

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7d7wm384x](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7d7wm384x)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data was collected to verify whether the inoculated (treatment H) and control (treatment L) mesocosms differed in microarthropod density. Once verified, we collected further data to assess the effect of microarthropod densities on litter decomposition and fungal communities.

### Files and variables

#### File: Salazar-Fillippo\_et\_al\_2024c\_raw\_data.txt

**Description:** Dataset of microarthropod counts and decomposition for different treatments and habitat types.

##### Variables

* Location: Site number.
* Treatment: Different levels of microarthropod densities as follows - C (low), F (high), and P (reference). The reference refers to soil taken at the sites and without microarthropod density...