Decomposition fertility islands [dataset]

Litter decomposition in field experiment. A total of 280 mesocosms were settled under and away of 20 individuals of Z. lotus. The litter boxes thus contained either one single species of litter (20 litter boxes for each species and position treatment), 2-sp mixtures (20 litter boxes for each 2-species combination and position treatment) or 3-sp mixtures (20 litter boxes with the 3-species mixture and position treatment).

This study was supported by the Office of Secretary of Public Education of Mexico though the program Further Education Programme for Teachers (UNICACH-110). Further support was provided by the Spanish Research Agency (grant CGL2017-84515-R to FIP and grant CGL2015-66192-R to JML). We thank the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Nature Park for support during field work (permit: 2016-101-657).

Date Date of collection (1 - 07/13/2017, 2 - 01/13/2018, 3 -08/30/2018) Plant Plant (Ziziphus lotus fertility island) ID utmx Geographic Longitude for each plant utmy Geographic Latitude for each plant Box Mesocosm ID Island Location of the mesocosm (Away or Under shrub) Mixtures Litter plant diversity (species richness 1, 2, 3) Species Identity of the litter plant species with three levels: S. tenacissima, C. humilis and R. sphaerocarpa w_inic Litter initial dry mass (g) w_end Litter dry mass (g) after 184, 367 and 597 days in the field

Peer reviewed