Macroinvertebrate contributions to wood decomposition as it progresses in the southeastern USA

This is a collection of data from the southeastern United States on wood mass loss during decomposition with and without the presence of macroinvertebrates. Most observations were calculated from data provided by five different published studies that included data from 2010-2021. These studies examined wood mass loss over various time frames ranging from four months to four years, and they used wood from both native and non-native tree species found in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Mississippi. Additional data from two unpublished studies conducted by the USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station were also used. Data from the two unpublished studies were collected from Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina from 2017-2021. Data in this package include the name of the study, type of wood species, treatment applied, number of sites, length of time in years that wood was decomposed and how long decomposition was measured, the percentage of mass loss from wood, and the percentage of mass loss attributable to macroinvertebrates.
The purpose of collecting these data was to determine the trajectory of the macroinvertebrate contribution to wood decomposition as it progressed.
For more information about this study and these data, see Taylor et al. (2024). These data were published on 10/17/2023. On 02/14/2024, the metadata was updated to include complete citation details for Taylor et al. (2024) which was recently published.