Litter consumption by macrodetritivores depends more on mechanical than on nutritional constraints

Ecosystem functions greatly depend on trophic interactions between consumers and their resources. Resource consumption depends on ingestion, digestion, and allocation processes. Mechanical constraints are expected to influence ingestion, while metabolic and nutritional constraints are expected to influence allocation. Leaf litter are resources presenting a high mechanical and nutritional heterogeneity that depends on plant identity and on physical and microbial processing over the course of decomposition. Litter consumption by detritivores is known to depend on metabolic and nutritional constraints but the importance of mechanical constraints is yet unknown. After accounting for metabolic constraints on consumption rate, we tested the relative importance of mechanical and nutritional constraints in explaining litter consumption rates by detritivores. For this, we exposed 16 leaf treatments (8 leaf species either just leached or leached and microbially conditioned) to 4 aquatic and 5 ter..., This dataset is based on consumption tests: In small plastic boxes we quantified the consumption rate of a given litter by a given detritivore individual. Detritivore species and leaf litter batches were characterized by the measurements of traits.
Experimental design
We selected 8 leaf litter species with a large range of mechanical and nutritional trait values to cover a wide spectrum of potentially different constraints. Each leaf litter species was then either just leached, or leached and microbially conditioned before being offered to detritivores. This ensured enlarging the range of initial mechanical and nutritional litter traits values while limiting the content of chemical deterrents. We performed leaf litter consumption tests by offering one of 16 different leaf litter types to one of 9 macrodetritivore taxa (four aquatic and five terrestrial species). Detritivore taxa were chosen to be representative of coarse lifeforms commonly encountered in aquatic and terrestrial ecosyste..., , # Litter consumption by macrodetritivores depends more on mechanical than on nutritional constraints

This dataset is based on consumption tests: in small plastic boxes, we quantified the consumption rate of a given litter by a given detritivore individual. Detritivore species (n = 9) and leaf litter batches (from 8 species, with 2 different treatments: either just leached, or microbially conditionned, resulting in n = 16 batches) were characterized by the measurements of traits.

## Description of the data and file structure

Each line corresponds to a unique detritivore individual - litter batch couple.

Here is a description of all columns, with units if relevant:

* DetritivoreSp = Detritivore taxon
* Id = Unique Id for each line. First letter = Litter species (A=Ailanthus; C=Carpinus; N=Juglans; M=Prunus; R=Robinia; E=Maple; Q=Quercus; P=Platanus). Second letter = Conditioning treatment (A=Aquatic, T=Terrestrial, nothing=no conditioning)
* LitterId = Litter Id First letter ...