Leaf litter decomposition in old-growth and selectively logged forest

Description:

In a multifactorial experiment we investigated the consequences of selective logging for decomposition and nutrient cycling in Southeast Asia by testing the effects of chemical composition of leaf litter and site factors on leaf litter mass loss. Litterbags were used to estimate decomposition over a period of 24 weeks, litterbags were collected 2, 4, 6, 8, 13, 24 weeks after the start of the experiment.

Project: This dataset was collected as part of the following SAFE research project: Biodiversity and land-use impacts on tropical ecosystem function (BALI): Quantifying biogeochemistry across forest disturbance gradients in Sabah

Funding: These data were collected as part of research funded by:

• NERC (Standard grant, NE/K016253/1)

This dataset is released under the CC-BY 4.0 licence, requiring that you cite the dataset in any outputs, but has the additional condition that you acknowledge the contribution of these funders in any outputs.

Permits: These data were collected under permit from the following authorities:

• Sabah Biodiversity Centre (Research licence JKM/MBS.1000-2/2(383))

XML metadata: GEMINI compliant metadata for this dataset is available here

Files: This consists of 1 file: Both_litter_decomposition_experiment.xlsx

Both_litter_decomposition_experiment.xlsx

This file contains dataset metadata and 3 data tables:

1. chemical_composition_start (described in worksheet chemical_composition_start)

   Description: Chemical properties from the two leaf litter types before the experiment

   Number of fields: 19

   Number of data rows: 10

   Fields:

   • replicate: Replicate number (Field type: Replicate)
   • litter_type: Litter type (Field type: ID)
   • P_mg.g: Phosporus concentration in mg per g dry weight of leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • N_perc: Nitrogen concentration in % of leaf litter, analysed in University of Aberdeen (Field type: Numeric)
   • C_perc: Carbon concentration in % of leaf litter, analysed in University of Aberdeen (Field type: Numeric)
   • C.N: Carbon nitrogen ratio of leaf litter, analysed in University of Aberdeen (Field type: Numeric)
   • P_perc: Phosporus concentration in % of leaf litter, analysed in University of Aberdeen (Field type: Numeric)
   • C.P: Carbon phosporus ratio of leaf litter, analysed in University of Aberdeen (Field type: Numeric)
   • N.P: Nitrogen phosporus ratio of leaf litter, analysed in University of Aberdeen (Field type: Numeric)
   • Ca_mg.g: Calcium concentration in mg per g dry weight of leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • Mg_mg.g: Magnesium concentration in mg per g dry weight of leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • Al_mg.g: Aluminium concentration in mg per g dry weight of leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • K_mg.g: Potassium concentration in mg per g dry weight of leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • soluble_cell_content: Soluble cell content in percent (Field type: Numeric)
   • nonsoluble_cell_content: Non-soluble cell content in percent (Field type: Numeric)
   • hemicellulose_bound_proteins: Hemicellulose and bound proteins content in percent (Field type: Numeric)
   • cellulose_lignin_recalcitrants: Soluble cell content in percent (Field type: Numeric)
   • cellulose: Cellulose content in percent (Field type: Numeric)
   • lignin_recalcitrants: Lignin and recalcitrants content in percent (Field type: Numeric)

2. chemical_composition_end (described in worksheet chemical_composition_end)

   Description: Chemical properties from individual leaf litter bags at the end of the experiment

   Number of fields: 18

   Number of data rows: 64

   Fields:

   • code: Identifyer for each leaf litter bag, coding for location-plotname-subplot pair-leaf litter type-mesh size-replicate (Field type: ID)
   • location: Location of experimental plots (M: Maliau; S: SAFE) (Field type: ID)
   • location_name: Plot name (Field type: Location)
   • plot: Running number of experimental plots (Field type: ID)
   • pair: Each plot contains two experimental units (making up a pair) (Field type: ID)
   • replicate: Each pair contained two replicates of the same treatment (litter type x mesh size) (Field type: replicate)
   • litter_type: Litter type (Field type: Categorical)
   • mesh: Mesh size of the litter bags (Field type: Categorical)
   • P_mg.g: Phosporus concentration in mg per g dry weight of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • K_mg.g: Potassium concentration in mg per g dry weight of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • Ca_mg.g: Calcium concentration in mg per g dry weight of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • Mg_mg.g: Magnesium concentration in mg per g dry weight of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • Al_mg.g: Aluminium concentration in mg per g dry weight of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • N_perc: Nitrogen concentration in % of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • C_perc: Carbon concentration in % of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • C.N: Carbon nitrogen ratio of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • cellulose: Cellulose concentration in % of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)
   • lignin_recalcitrants: Lignin and recalcitrants concentration in % of dry leaf litter (Field type: Numeric)

3. litterbags_massloss (described in worksheet litterbags_massloss)

   Description: Mass loss of litter in litterbags over the experimental period of 24 weeks

   Number of fields: 17

   Number of data rows: 128

   Fields:

   • code: Identifyer for each leaf litter bag, coding for location-plotname-subplot pair-leaf litter type-mesh size-replicate (Field type: ID)
   • location: Location of experimental plots (Field type: ID)
   • plotname: Plot name (Field type: Location)
   • plot: Running number of experimental plots (Field type: ID)
   • pair: Each plot contains two experimental units (making up a pair) (Field type: ID)
   • replicate: Each pair contained two replicates of the same treatment (litter type x mesh size) (Field type: Replicate)
   • litter_type: Litter type (Field type: Categorical)
   • mesh: Mesh size of the litter bags (Field type: Categorical)
   • weight_t0: Initial weight at the beginning of the experiment, around 10 g per litter bag (Field type: Numeric)
   • weight_t1: Weight at time step 1 after 2 weeks (Field type: Numeric)
   • weight_t2: Weight at time step 1 after 4 weeks (Field type: Numeric)
   • weight_t3: Weight at time step 1 after 6 weeks (Field type: Numeric)
   • weight_t4: Weight at time step 1 after 8 weeks (Field type: Numeric)
   • weight_t5: Weight at time step 1 after 13 weeks (Field type: Numeric)
   • weight_t6: Weight at time step 1 after 24 weeks (Field type: Numeric)
   • t6_corrected: Weight at time step 1 after 24 weeks, corrected for contaminating material, mostly ingrown plant roots and fungal hyphae. This is the data to use. (Field type: Numeric)
   • mass_loss_%: Mass loss at the end of the experiment compared to the start of the experiment, in percent (Field type: Numeric)

Date range: 2014-05-01 to 2018-09-01

Latitudinal extent: 4.5000 to 5.0700

Longitudinal extent: 116.7500 to 117.8200