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Reinsch, S.; Blanes, M.C.; Emmett, B.A.

Soil respiration responses to carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous additions to topsoil and subsoil cores from the Conwy catchment in North Wales (2014)

The data consists of raw data on measured carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide concentration (N2O) concentrations from intact soil topsoil (0-15 cm) and subsoil cores (85-100 cm) to added carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Four land uses (Bog, acid grassland, improved grassland and arable field) in North Wales were selected for this study with three replicates each. Intact soil cores were taken in January and February in 2014.

The data consists of three datasets. The first dataset contains the measured CO2 concentration that was measured from intact topsoil cores (0-15 cm) as a result of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus additions form a pilot study. For the pilot study intact topsoil cores were taken in November and December in 2013 from three sites. a Podzol, a coniferous forest soil and a grassland soil. These sites were not in the Conwy Catchment. The pilot study results were used to inform the experimental setup for the main experiment. The data from the main experiment, measured carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide concentration (N2O), are reported in the second dataset for intact topsoil and subsoil cores. The third dataset contains nitrogen mineralization data from the intact soil cores that were used as control cores and did not receive any carbon or nutrient additions. The dataset contains measurements on soil nitrate, ammonium and total nitrogen mineralization rates in milligrammes of nitrogen per gramme of dry weight or per gramme of organic matter content.

In both the experimental datasets, the weight of the soil cores at field capacity (in grammes) was reported and weight loss was adjusted by adding an artificial rain water solution. The incubation time (in minutes), the measured CO2 and N2O concentrations (in part per million = ppm) were recorded at the beginning and the end of the incubation. Total soil dry weight per soil core (in grammes) and the total weight of soil organic matter (loss on ignition, in grammes) are reported. The data were collected to calculate production of Measurements were undertaken by staff from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. The data were collected to link plant and soil nutrients to aboveground and belowground ecosystem processes to incorporate relevant parameters into the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) model.

This data was collected for the NERC project 'The Multi-Scale Response of Water quality, Biodiversity and Carbon Sequestration to Coupled Macronutrient Cycling from Source to Sea' (NE/J011991/1). The project is also referred to as Turf2Surf.
Publication date: 2017-03-14