Data and code from: Decadal recovery of fungal but not termite deadwood decay in tropical rainforest

Deadwood represents ~11% of carbon stocks in tropical rainforest
ecosystems, and its decay is driven largely by fungi and termites, which
contribute to the cycling of carbon and nutrients. Due to land use change,
such as forest clearing, secondary growth tropical rainforests are
increasingly prevalent around the globe. In secondary growth rainforests,
studies found lower decay rates of leaf litter; however, little is known
about how deadwood decays in these forests. Here, we tested whether
termite and fungal species richness, composition, and functions in
decaying deadwood were similar in secondary and old-growth tropical
rainforests. We assessed termites' ability to discover and consume
deadwood, as well as fungi community composition and contributions to wood
decay. We placed non-native pine blocks, half of which were accessible to
termites, in an old-growth rainforest site as a reference and two
secondary-growth rainforest sites that were restored four and eight years
before the start of the experiment. Blocks were harvested every 6 months
for 4 years (8 harvests). Using fungal ITS amplicon sequencing of sawdust
samples from the decaying deadwood blocks at the seventh harvest, we
determined wood-dwelling fungal community composition. We found
that termites discovered similar proportions of deadwood across the
secondary growth and old growth rainforest sites, although the decay rates
of the discovered deadwood were lower in the secondary growth
rainforest. Further, fungal decay was similar to old growth
rainforest levels in the older but not younger secondary growth rainforest
where it was slower, although differences among sites were small.
Wood-dwelling fungal communities were similar between secondary growth and
the old growth rainforest. Contrary to common assumptions, fungal
communities and their wood decay functions were resilient and recovered
relatively quickly within secondary growth rainforests, however, those of
termites did not, which could reduce carbon and nutrient cycling in
secondary growth rainforests. Active management methods such as the local
transplant of termite- and fungi-occupied logs could accelerate the
recovery of these ecosystems.