Dead wood plays an important role in element cycling (carbon, nutrients, water, etc.) and the build-up of carbon and nutrient stocks. While C content is considered to be approximately constant along decay gradient, N content grows rapidly as decomposition progresses. Wood density is defined here as green volume to dry mass ratio.Before being analysed, samples were dried at 60C to a constant weight and powdered. We used NIRS method and CN analyzer for calibration and model validation. This dataset contains C and N content in deadwood (dry mass) of all tree species in all decay classes (mostly CWD, only Spanish samples were mostly FWD) present on FunDiv plots.

Samples from every species and decay class present as CWD was taken. In some cases, when pieces assigned to the same decay class visually differed in e.g. position or type of rot, we took two samples. On Spanish plots, where CWD was generally absent, we sampled mainly FWD.

Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain