The amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of the global forest carbon stocks1. The decomposition of deadwood is largely governed by climate2-5 with decomposer groups-such as microorganisms and insects-contributing to variations in the decomposition rates2,6,7. At the global scale, the contribution of insects to the decomposition of deadwood and carbon release remains poorly understood7. Here we present a field experiment of wood decomposition across 55 forest sites and 6 continents. We find that the deadwood decomposition rates increase with temperature, and the strongest temperature effect is found at high precipitation levels. Precipitation affects the decomposition rates negatively at low temperatures and positively at high temperatures. As a net effect-including the direct consumption by insects and indirect effects through interactions with microorganisms-insects accelerate the decomposition in tropical forests (3.9% median mass loss per year). In temperate and boreal forests, we find weak positive and negative effects with a median mass loss of 0.9 per cent and -0.1 per cent per year, respectively. Furthermore, we apply the experimentally derived decomposition function to a global map of deadwood carbon synthesized from empirical and remote-sensing data, obtaining an estimate of 10.9 ± 3.2 petagram of carbon per year released from deadwood globally, with 93 per cent originating from tropical forests. Globally, the net effect of insects may account for 29 per cent of the carbon flux from deadwood, which suggests a functional importance of insects in the decomposition of deadwood and the carbon cycle.

Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Centre of Mazandaran Sari Iran

Animal Ecology University of Marburg Marburg Germany

Applied Landscape Ecology Chuo University Tokyo Japan

ARC Centre for Forest Value University of Tasmania Hobart Tasmania Australia

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment Bangalore India

Bavarian Forest National Park Grafenau Germany

Berchtesgaden National Park Berchtesgaden Germany

Biological Sciences University of Toronto Scarborough Toronto Ontario Canada

CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia Kunming Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming China

Centre for the Environment Institute for Future Environments Brisbane Queensland Australia

CIRAD UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane AgroParisTech CNRS INRA Universite des Antilles Universite de Guyane Kourou France

College of Forestry Beijing Forestry University Beijing China

Conservation Ecology University of Marburg Marburg Germany

Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Estadual Paulista Rio Claro Brazil

Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany

Department of Biodiversity Conservation Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt Germany

Department of Biogeography University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany

Department of Disturbance Ecology University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany

Department of Ecology University of Granada Granada Spain

Department of Plant Systematics University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany

Department of Thermodynamics Universidad Nacional del Nordeste Resistencia Argentina

Department of Wildlife Fish and Environmental Studies Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Umeå Sweden

ECNU Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Study Tiantong National Station for Forest Ecosystem Research East China Normal University Shanghai China

EcoBank Team National Institute of Ecology Seocheon gun Republic of Korea

École d'Ingénieurs de Purpan Université de Toulouse UMR 1201 Dynafor Toulouse France

Ecology Group University Erlangen Nuremberg Erlangen Germany

Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich Freising Germany

Ecosystem Science and Management Program University of Northern British Columbia Terrace British Columbia Canada

Edge Hill University Ormskirk UK

Environmental and Conservation Sciences Murdoch University Melville Western Australia Australia

Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Oxford UK

Environmental Futures Research Institute Griffith University Nathan Queensland Australia

Epidemiology Biostatistics and Prevention Institute University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Eurofins Ahma Oy Oulu Finland

Evolutionary Zoology University of Salzburg Salzburg Austria

Faculté des Sciences Université d'Antananarivo Antananarivo Madagascar

Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management Norwegian University of Life Sciences Aas Norway

Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia

Field Station Fabrikschleichach University of Würzburg Rauhenebrach Germany

Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Laboratory National University of Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mongolia

Forest Entomology Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL Birmensdorf Switzerland

Forest Research Institute Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Grassland Vegetation Lab Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Porto Alegre Brazil

H J Andrews Experimental Forest Blue River OR USA

Institute for Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences Gödöllő Hungary

Institute of Biological Sciences University of the Philippines Los Banos Laguna The Philippines

Institute of Ecology and Botany Centre for Ecological Research Vácrátót Hungary

Institute of Evolution University of Haifa Haifa Israel

Institute of Forestry Tribhuvan University Pokhara Nepal

Institute of Zoology University of Hamburg Hamburg Germany

Instituto de Ecología Regional CONICET Universidad Nacional de Tucumán Yerba Buena Argentina

International Institute of Tropical Forestry USDA Forest Service San Juan PR USA

Laboratory of Applied Ecology University of Abomey Calavi Godomey Benin

Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology The Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK

Natural Resources Canada Canadian Forest Service Quebec Quebec Canada

Réserves Naturelles de France Dijon France

Royal Alberta Museum Edmonton Alberta Canada

School of Agricultural Forest and Food Sciences Bern University of Applied Sciences Zollikofen Switzerland

School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences University College Cork Cork Ireland

School of Environment and Science Griffith University Nathan Queensland Australia

School of Forest Sciences University of Eastern Finland Joensuu Finland

School of Forestry University of Canterbury Christchurch New Zealand

Science and Engineering Faculty Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Queensland Australia

Scion Christchurch New Zealand

Southern Research Station USDA Forest Service Athens GA USA

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich Freising Germany

Tropical Biodiversity and Social Enterprise Fort Dauphin Madagascar

Tropical Forests and People Research Centre University of the Sunshine Coast Maroochydore Queensland Australia

Universidade Federal de Lavras Lavras Brazil

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