1. Woody debris (WD) represents a globally significant carbon stock and its decomposition returns nutrients to the soil while providing habitat to microbes, plants and animals. Understanding what drives WD decomposition is therefore important.2. WD decomposition rates differ greatly among species. However, the role of bark in the process remains poorly known.3. We ask how, and how much, interspecific variation in bark functional traits related to growth and protection have afterlife effects on the decomposition of wood, partly mediated by animals. We examine the roles of bark cover and bark traits throughout the wood decomposition process. 4.Synthesis. We find that: (1) bark effects on WD decomposition are species-and wood size-specific, (2) bark can enhance coarser WD decomposition but slows twig decomposition in some species, and (3) bark acts as an environmental filter to faunal assemblages in the early stage of wood decomposition. We highlight the need to account for bark effects on WD decomposition and offer an important complementary contribution to including woody species identity effects in biogeochemical and climate-change models via species bark traits. K E Y W O R D Sarthropod, bark traits, carbon cycling, coarse woody debris, decomposition, ecosystem function, fungi, species identity effect

Deforestation and forest degradation are driving unprecedented declines in biodiversity across the tropics, and understanding the consequences of these changes for ecosystem functioning is essential for human well‐being. Forest degradation and loss alter ecosystem functioning through changes in species composition and abiotic conditions. However, the consequences of these changes for heterospecific processes are often poorly understood. Leaf litter decomposition is a major source of atmospheric carbon and critical for carbon and nutrient cycling. Through a highly replicated litter‐bag experiment (3360 bags), we quantified the effects of litter quality, decomposer functional diversity and seasonal precipitation regime on litter decomposition along a tropical disturbance gradient in SW China. In addition, using soil and litter from sites selected from across the disturbance gradient, we established replicated litter‐bed treatments and exposed these to a gradient of simulated canopy cover in a shade‐house. Across the landscape, mass loss from litter‐bags after 12 months varied from 7% to 98%. Even after 12 months, litter‐bags installed at the beginning of the dry season had much lower mass loss than those installed at the beginning of the wet season. As expected, litter quality and faunal exclusion had substantial effects on decomposition rates. Decomposition rates declined along the disturbance gradient from mature forest, through regenerating forest to open land, although the effect size was strongly dependent on installation season. The effect of excluding meso‐ and macro‐invertebrates increased with increasing forest degradation, whereas the effect of litter quality declined. Results from the shade‐house experiment strongly suggested that forest degradation effects were driven predominantly by changes in micro‐climatic conditions resulting from increased canopy openness. To better model the impacts of anthropogenic global change on litter decomposition rates, it will be important to consider landscape scale processes, such as forest degradation.