Data and code from: Microbial life history mediates the drought-induced decrease in wood decomposition in subtropical forests
Data files
May 11, 2026 version files 59.28 KB
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DATA.csv
44.20 KB
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drought_effect.csv
1.57 KB
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README.md
7.76 KB
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wood_decomposition_code.R
5.75 KB
Abstract
Progressive intensification of drought regimes worldwide threatens wood decomposition - a critical biogeochemical process in forest carbon cycling. However, the interactions between microbial strategies, wood traits, and microclimate in regulating wood decomposition remain poorly understood under drought conditions. In a throughfall exclusion experiment (control, 35%, and 70% rainfall reduction) across 12 tree species, we found that drought-induced reductions in wood CO₂ efflux rates were primarily driven by wood traits (density and carbon reduction) and shifts in fungal K/r-strategies. Coarse wood debris with higher Basidiomycota and lower Ascomycota abundance decomposed faster. Significant positive correlations were observed between fungal K/r-strategies and wood CO2 efflux under control, 35%, and 70% rainfall reduction, while bacterial strategies showed no correlation. Our findings highlight the greater drought sensitivity of fungi than bacteria, emphasizing their critical role in forest carbon dynamics and informing carbon models to improve the prediction of climate-biosphere feedback in the changing world.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.djh9w0wb9
File Name and Description
• DATA.csv: Contains data on deadwood CO2 efflux, wood traits, and microbial properties across different tree species under drought treatments.
• drought_effect.csv: Contains cumulative wood CO2 efflux and drought effects under different rainfall reduction treatments across 12 tree species.
• wood_decomposition_code.R: This R script analyzes ecological and soil respiration data by applying multiple statistical methods, including t-tests, linear mixed models, ANOVA, linear regression, random forest analysis, correlation analysis, partial correlations, and structural equation modeling (SEM).
It also generates visualizations such as violin plots and correlation plots to compare treatment effects, tree species differences, and relationships among environmental and biological variables.
Description of the data and file structure
| Variable | Note |
|---|---|
| tre | Three drought intensity treatments, including CK (100% rainfall), D1(35% rainfall reduction), and D2(70% rainfall reduction) |
| sample | Including 12 studied tree species in a subtropical forest |
| plot | Study plot |
| Block | Study block |
| CO2 | Wood acclumulated CO2 efflux (g C·m-2·yr-1) |
| WTemp | Average annual wood temperature (℃) |
| WMC | Average annual wood moisture content. |
| traitsrespc1 | PCA axis 1 of all changed wood traits (ΔWood traits in the manuscript) |
| densityres | Changes of wood density (ΔWood density in the manuscript) |
| Cdensityres | Changes of wood carbon content (ΔC density in the manuscript) |
| Ndensityres | Changes of wood nitrogen content (ΔN density in the manuscript) |
| Pdensityres | Changes of wood phosphorus content (ΔP density in the manuscript) |
| ligninres | Changes of wood lignin content (ΔLignin in the manuscript) |
| cellres | Changes of wood cellulose content (ΔCelloluse in the manuscript) |
| hemicellres | Changes of wood hemicellulose content (ΔHemicellulose in the manuscript) |
| ligninNres | Changes of wood lignin/N content (ΔLignin/N in the manuscript) |
| F_Shannon | Fungal Shannon index (α diversity) |
| Fpcoa1 | Fungal diversity (beta diversity) |
| B_Shannon | Bacterial Shannon index (α diversity) |
| Bpcoa1 | Bacterial diversity (beta diversity) |
| Proteobacteria | Relative abundance of Proteobacteria |
| C_Ascomycota | Relative abundance of Ascomycota |
| C_Actinobacteria | Relative abundance of Actinobacteria |
| C_Firmicutes | Relative abundance of Firmicutes |
| C_Bacteroidetes | Relative abundance of Bacteroidetes |
| O_Basidiomycota | Relative abundance of Basidiomycota |
| O_Acidobacteria | Relative abundance of Acidobacteria |
| O_Chloroflexi | Relative abundance of Chloroflexi |
| O_Verrucomicrobia | Relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia |
| O_Gemmatimonadetes | Relative abundance of Gemmatimonadetes |
| O_Planctomycetes | Relative abundance of Planctomycetes |
| copynumber | Bacterial copy number |
| ECMSap | Ectomycorrhizal/saprotrophic fungi ratio |
| whiterot | Relative abundance of white rot |
| brownrot | Relative abundance of brown rot |
| softrot | Relative abundance of soft rot |
| M_OC | Micrbial oligotroph/Copiotroph taxa ratio |
| F_OC | Fungi oligotroph/Copiotroph taxa ratio |
| B_OC | Bacterial oligotroph/Copiotroph taxa ratio |
| Sample | Tree species |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sassafras tzumu |
| 5 | Phoebe chekiangensis |
| 6 | Michelia maudiae |
| 7 | Liriodendron chinense |
| 8 | Liquidambar formosana |
| 13 | Castanopsis carlesii |
| 14 | Castanopsis sclerophylla |
| 16 | Quercus chenii |
| 17 | Cyclobalanopsis gracilis |
| 20 | Acer elegantulum |
| 24 | Paulownia fortunei |
| 26 | Kalopanax septemlobus |
