Let Θ := {θ e I : e ∈ E, I ∈ D} be a decomposition system for L 2 (R d ) indexed over D, the set of dyadic cubes in R d , and a finite set E, and let Θ := { θ e I : e ∈ E, I ∈ D} be the corresponding dual functionals. That is, for everyWe study sufficient conditions on Θ, Θ so that they constitute a decomposition system for Triebel-Lizorkin and Besov spaces. Moreover, these conditions allow us to characterize the membership of a distribution f in these spaces by the size of the coefficients f, θ e I , e ∈ E, I ∈ D. Typical examples of such decomposition systems are various wavelet-type unconditional bases for L 2 (R d ), and more general systems such as affine frames.2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 41A17, 41A20, 42B25, 42C15. [133] J (4.17) = e∈E J∈D I∈D s I (f ) a e (I, J)θ e J = e∈E J∈D I∈Dwhere all identities above are considered in the distributional sense. To justify the third equality, we note that the assumptions of the theorem guarantee that for every e ∈ E the matrix A T e is bounded onḟ s pq . Since ς := (s I (f )) I ∈ḟ s pq , the sequence (d e J ) := ( I∈D | a e (I, J)| |s I (f )|) J belongs inḟ s pq . Finally, for every η ∈ S k with k := max{[s − d/p], −1}, as in the proof of Lemma 4.1 we have J∈D |d e J | | θ e J , η | < ∞, which allows us to interchange the order of the summations. where for e ∈ E, a e (I, J) := Φ I , ψ e J , |I| = 1, |J| ≤ 1, φ I , ψ e J , |I| < 1, |J| ≤ 1, while a 0 (I, J) := Φ I , ψ 0 J , |I| = 1, |J| = 1, φ I , ψ 0 J , |I| < 1, |J| = 1, 0, |I| ≤ 1, |J| < 1.