Climate and litter traits affect the response of litter decomposition to soil fauna

Soil fauna plays a crucial role in contributing to litter breakdown, accelerating the decomposition rate and enhancing the biogeochemical cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. Comprehending the specific fauna role of functional species in litter decomposition is challenging due to their vast numbers and diversity. Climate and litter quality are widely acknowledged as dominant drives of litter decomposition across large spatial scales. However, the pattern of climate and litter quality modulates the effect of soil fauna on litter decomposition remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, we conducted an extensive analysis using data from 81 studies to investigate how climate and litter traits affects soil fauna in the decomposition.

The paper describes fauna body size, climate zones (tropical, subtropical and temperate), ecosystem types (forest, grassland, wetland and farmland), soil types (sand, loam and clay), decomposed duration (< 180, 180-360, > 360 days), litter initial traits, average annual temperature and precipitation. The litter traits encompass various parameters such as concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, lignin, cellulose, total phenol, condensed tannin, hydrolysable tannin and other nutrient traits. These comprehensive datasets provide valuable insights into the role of soil fauna on the decomposition at global scale. Furthermore, the data will give researchers keys to assess how climate, litter quality and soil fauna interact to determine decomposition rates.