Data and code from: Inverse effects of soil moisture and litter quality on litter decomposition along a gradient from hyper-arid to temperate climate

Litter decomposition, a key component of the global carbon cycle, is greatly affected by climate. Our current understanding of climate-change effects on decomposition stems from 1) spatial observational studies along climate gradients, where direct and indirect effects of climate on litter decomposition are confounded; 2) reciprocal litter translocations and common garden experiments, where biotic interactions are disrupted or 3) manipulation experiments, which can be less realistic than observational studies. Experimental studies combining all of the above-mentioned methods can separate indirect from direct climate effects on decomposition, as the confounding effects of one method can be explained with another method. Additionally, this setup can directly test if observations along a spatial gradient can predict responses to climate change, i.e. the validity of the space-for-time approach. However, studies combining the different methods are still scarce. We combined a pronounced clima..., At each site, we selected five abundant and representative native species, making sure the species provided a considerable fraction of the litter input. (arid: Heliotropium pycnophyllum Phil., Nolana crassulifolia Poepp., Nolana mollis I.M. Johnst., Ophryosporus triangularis Meyen, Tetragonia maritima Barnéoud; semi-arid: Cordia decandra Hook. & Arn., Flourensia thurifera (Molina) DC, Lobelia polyphylla Hook. & Arn., Maytenus boaria Molina, Senna cumingii (Hook. & Arn.) H.S. Irwin; Mediterranean: Aristeguietia salvia (Colla) R.M. King & H. Rob., Cestrum parqui (Lam.) L`Hér., Jubaea chilensis (Molina) Baill., Podanthus mitiqui Lind., Quillaja saponaria Molina; temperate: Araucaria araucana (Molina) K. Koch, Chusquea culeou É. Desv., Festuca sp., Nothofagus antarctica (G. Forst.) Oerst., Usnea sp.). In addition, Lipton® green tea (Camellia sinensis, EAN Nr.: 8 722700 055525, from here on “tea”) was used as a standard litter (Keuskamp, Dingemans, Lehtinen, Sarneel, & He..., # Inverse effects of soil moisture and litter quality on litter decomposition along a gradient from hyper-arid to temperate climate

van den Brink, Liesbeth*^1,2, 3^; Canessa, Rafaella^4,5,6^; Bader, Maaike Y.^4^; Neidhardt, Harald^7^; Oelmann, Yvonne^7^: Cavieres, Lohengrin A.^2,8^; Tielbrger, Katja ^1^

^1^Plant Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University Tbingen, Germany.

^2^ECOBIOSIS, Department of Botany, University of Concepcin, Concepcin, Chile.

^3^Institute of Botany, Department of Ecosystem Management, Climate and Biodiversity, BOKU University, Austria.

^4^Ecological Plant Geography, Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, Germany.

^5^German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

^6^Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany

^7^Geoecology, Department of Geosciences, University Tbingen, Germany.
8Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB)...,