ABSTRACT Decomposition of organic matter strongly influences ecosystem carbon storage1. In Earth-system models, climate is a predominant control on the decomposition rates of organic

matter2,3,4,5. This assumption is based on the mean response of decomposition to climate, yet there is a growing appreciation in other areas of global change science that projections based

on mean responses can be irrelevant and misleading6,7. We test whether climate controls on the decomposition rate of dead wood—a carbon stock estimated to represent 73 ± 6 Pg carbon

globally8—are sensitive to the spatial scale from which they are inferred. We show that the common assumption that climate is a predominant control on decomposition is supported only when

ago9,10, yet mean climate–decomposition relationships are used to generate simulations that inform management and adaptation under environmental change. Our results suggest that to predict

accurately how decomposition will respond to climate change, models must account for local-scale factors that control regional dynamics. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This

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INTRICATE ROLE OF CLIMATE IN LITTER DECOMPOSITION Article 09 January 2023 THE CONTRIBUTION OF INSECTS TO GLOBAL FOREST DEADWOOD DECOMPOSITION Article 01 September 2021 FIELD-BASED TREE

MORTALITY CONSTRAINT REDUCES ESTIMATES OF MODEL-PROJECTED FOREST CARBON SINKS Article Open access 19 April 2022 REFERENCES * Wieder, W. R., Bonan, G. B. & Allison, S. D. Global soil

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et al. Intraspecific responses to climate in _Pinus sylvestris_. _Glob. Change Biol._ 8, 912–929 (2002). Article  Google Scholar  Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to A. Neupane

and J. Snajdr for laboratory assistance, and P. Raymond, O. Schmitz, D. Menge and B. Taylor for comments on earlier drafts. For site-use permissions we thank the Florida Department of

Environmental Protection (San Felasco Hammock State Park), the US Forest Service (Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory and Chattahoochee National Forest), the Yale School of Forests (Yale Myers

Research Forest) and the Warnell School of Forestry (Whitehall Forest). Wood chemistry was determined by the Yale Earth System Center for Stable Isotopic Studies. Research was supported by

US National Science Foundation grants to M.A.B. (DEB-1021098), J.R.K. (DEB-1020415) and the Coweeta LTER Program. P.B. was supported by the RC of the Institute of Microbiology. AUTHOR

INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 370 Prospect Street New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA, Mark A. Bradford, Thomas W.

Crowther, Daniel S. Maynard & Emily E. Oldfield * Biology Department, SUNY Buffalo State, 1300 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo, New York 14222, USA, Robert J. Warren II * Institute of

Microbiology of the ASCR, Vídeňská 1083, 14220 Praha 4, Czech Republic Petr Baldrian * National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado 80307, USA William R. Wieder * Department

of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, 1200 Amsterdam Avenue New York, New York 10027, USA, Stephen A. Wood * Biology Department, University of Central

Florida, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard Orlando, Florida 32816, USA, Joshua R. King Authors * Mark A. Bradford View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * Robert J. Warren II View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Petr Baldrian View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Thomas W. Crowther View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Daniel S. Maynard View author publications You can

also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Emily E. Oldfield View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * William R. Wieder View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Stephen A. Wood View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Joshua R.

King View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS M.A.B. and R.J.W. contributed equally to this work. Together with J.R.K., they

conceived and established the study. M.A.B., R.J.W., P.B., T.W.C., E.E.O. and J.R.K. performed field and laboratory work. M.A.B., R.J.W. and S.A.W. analysed data. W.R.W. modelled the

decomposition data. M.A.B. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to data interpretation and paper writing. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Mark A. Bradford.

ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing financial interests. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION (PDF 366 KB) RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS

Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Bradford, M., Warren II, R., Baldrian, P. _et al._ Climate fails to predict wood decomposition at regional scales. _Nature Clim

Change_ 4, 625–630 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2251 Download citation * Received: 05 December 2013 * Accepted: 25 April 2014 * Published: 01 June 2014 * Issue Date: July 2014 *

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