Data from: Interactive effects of climate change and biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning

Litter diversity and rainfall changes interactively affected multiple functions, but how depended on the process measured. High litter diversity buffered the effects of altered rainfall on detritivore communities, evidence of insurance against impacts of climate change. Altered rainfall affected the mechanisms by which litter diversity influenced decomposition, reducing the importance of complementary attributes of species (“complementarity effects”), and resulting in an increasing dependence on the maintenance of specific species (“dominance effects”).

Finally, altered rainfall conditions prevented litter diversity from fuelling methanogenesis, because such changes in rainfall reduced microbial activity by 58%. Together, these results demonstrate that the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss on ecosystems cannot be understood in isolation and interactions between these stressors can be multifaceted. Usage notes tank bromeliad experiment (Pires et al) This file contains the data used to produce the manuscript "Interactive effects of climate change and biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning" by Pires et al in Ecology.

The first sheet contains data of decomposition (dry weight loss in mg after 180 days), bacterial production (µmol C L-1 h-1), detritivore abundance (number of detritivore individuals in each tank bromeliad), detritivore richness (number of detritivore species in each tank bromeliad), bromeliad maximum volume (ml) and the mechanisms by which litter diversity affected decomposition (TICE: trait-independent complementarity effect; DE: dominance effect and TDCE: trait-dependent complementarity effect).

The second sheet contains data of methane concentration (ppm) in three different sampling times (30, 60 and 90 days after rainfall manipulation). The first three columns in each sheet describe the treatments used in the experiment. For more details about the experimental design, sampling and methods used to produce these data, see the manuscript in the journal.