Plant aboveground net primary productivity estimates (2021) and litter layer depth measurements (2018-2019) at five long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England

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This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

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https://doi.org/10.5285/9156d263-4def-406d-bdc9-22a6821fe755

This dataset contains aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) estimates and litter layer depth measurements from five long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England between 2018 and 2021. Each metric was measured once at each site. Litter layer depth was measured between November 2018 and March 2019 . Leaves were sampled for ANPP estimates in 2021. Each land use contrast was assigned a grassland and a woodland plot respectively. Each of these plots was further divided into three grids (grassland grids 1 to 3 / woodland grids 4 to 6) with grids 1 and 6 being the furthest apart. The contrast boundary is between grids 3 and 4. In each plot, nine sampling locations were randomly sampled (three in each grid). The five land use contrasts were: Gisburn (Gisburn-1, Gisburn-2), Alice Holt, Wytham Woods, and Kielder Forest. ANPP (g dry mass m-2 yr-1) was estimated from measured leaf dry matter content of the two dominant species in each grassland and woodland plot. Litter layer depth (cm) was measured with a ruler in the field.

ANPP estimates and litter layer depth measurements in this dataset are co-located with soil physical, chemical and biological properties (0-1 m), soil hydraulic measurements (soil water release curves and hydraulic conductivity), and earthworm counts and identification. A file is provided to connect all co-located measurements.

This project was part of the UK-SCAPE programme which started in 2018 and was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council as National Capability (award number NE/R016429/1).

Publication date: 2023-10-27

Format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

Spatial information

Study area

Spatial representation type

Tabular (text)

Spatial reference systems

WGS 84
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Temporal information

Temporal extent

2018-11-01 to 2021-12-31

Provenance & quality

To estimate ANPP, leaves of the two dominant species in grassland and woodland plots were sampled from grids 2 and 5 during peak plant growth. The leaves were dried at 80oC for 24 h and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) was calculated. The LDMC values were then used to estimate ANPP using the model by Smart et al. (2017).

The litter layer depths were measured in most grids with a ruler at the time of soil sampling. Three measurements were recorded on field sheets and transferred to Microsoft Excel. The data were manipulated using R to calculate the mean and the data were exported as a .csv file .

Licensing and constraints

This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Cite this dataset as:

Smart, S.M.; Cagnarini, C.; Cosby, B.J.; Emmett, B.A.; Thomas, A.; Reinsch, S. (2023). Plant aboveground net primary productivity estimates (2021) and litter layer depth measurements (2018-2019) at five long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/9156d263-4def-406d-bdc9-22a6821fe755

BibTeX RIS

Citations

Reinsch, S., Lebron, I., Brentegani, M. et al. Co-located ecological data for exploring top- and subsoil carbon dynamics across grassland-woodland contrasts. Sci Data 11, 478 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03333-w