Biological nitrogen fixation and concentrations of nutrients and non-structural carbohydrates in deadwood of 13 different tree species

Deadwood is an extremely nitrogen poor plant litter whose decomposition may rely on external nitrogen sources. Biological nitrogen fixation by free-living diazotrophs is a potential pathway of nitrogen acquisition in deadwood. Still, the control of this process by tree species specific traits is hardly known.We determined rates of biological nitrogen fixation, respiration rate, and concentrations of nutrients and non-structural carbohydrates in deadwood logs of the BELongDead project from 13 tree species in the Hainich-Dün region of the Biodiversity Exploratories in June 2020. The data collection and analysis was part of the project Woodstock within the framework of the DFG-funded joint project Biodiversity Exploratories (https://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de).