This is a dataset of environmental data, percentage vegetation cover, total invertebrate abundance, and mean invertebrate body mass, sampled at 96 soil habitat patches in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, in July 2013. The habitat patches span a temperature gradient of 7-38 degrees C, yet they occur within 2 km of each other and have similar soil moisture, pH, total carbon, and total nitrogen. Effects of soil temperature on the structure and diversity of plant and invertebrate communities using this dataset are presented in Robinson et al. (2018), published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
Publication date: 2017-12-20
Sampling was carried out in July 2013 in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland. GPS coordinates and the temperature, moisture, and pH of the soil at each habitat patch were recorded during the field expedition. Dried soil samples were shipped to the Forest Research Centre for Ecosystems, Society, and Biosecurity (Farnham, UK), where total carbon and total nitrogen were quantified. Photographs were taken of plant community quadrats during the expedition and percentage cover of each species was enumerated later. Invertebrate samples collected from pitfall trapping during the expedition were preserved in 70 percent ethanol, shipped to Queen Mary University of London, and later identified under a microscope in the laboratory.
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