Mesofauna in mixed liana or tree litter bags: Growth form does not matter, but location does

Liana and tree leaves differ in several traits, with liana leaves generally exhibiting higher quality according to the leaf economic spectrum, which is also reflected in their litter. Differences in nutrient content and physical traits may influence the abundance and diversity of mesofauna inhabiting litter. This raises the question of whether liana and tree litter support different mesofauna communities during decomposition and what role lianas play in forest floor food webs. We studied litter fauna from mixed litterbags containing liana, tree, or a mixture of both litters after 1, 3, 5, and 11 months of incubation in three tropical forest types in SW China. The litterbags contained representative species from each forest type. Fauna was initially identified to order level through morphological sorting per litterbag, then all fauna was pooled per forest type and incubation time and meta-barcoded. We found no significant differences in fauna density or taxon richness between liana and tree litter, but observed differences across forest types. Fauna composition differed between forest types at most harvest times, with litter traits contributing marginally to the explained variation. Fauna taxon richness in each plot correlated positively with tree species richness, while fauna density showed a hump–shaped relationshipwith tree species. DNA barcoding data revealed similar patterns as morphological data but showed a trend of higher taxon richness in liana litter and compositional differences between liana and tree litter. Overall, habitat types had a greater influence on the litter fauna than the short-term (1–11 months) litter mixtures provided in the litterbags.