Earthworm species identification and counts at three 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/10.5285/2636c7e1-ec8c-4b77-9f4e-f731781191ca

This dataset contains earthworm counts and identification from three long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England between 2018 and 2021. Each land use contrast was assigned one grassland and one woodland plot, respectively. Each of the 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. The three grassland-to-woodland contrasts were sampled once: Gisburn (Gisburn-1, Gisburn-2), and Kielder Forest.

The earthworms were counted in 25 cm3 soil cubes and were identified to a species level. These measurements are co-located with estimates aboveground biomass production and litter layer depth, soil physical, chemical and biological properties (0-1 m), and soil hydraulic measurements (soil water release curves and hydraulic conductivity). 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

2018-01-01 to 2021-12-31

Provenance & quality

Earthworm measurements were conducted in grids 2 and 5.

The earthworms were counted in 25 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm soil cubes in grids 2 and 5. The earthworms were stored in the fridge until identified to species level in the lab.

Earthworms were identified by a competent member of staff, and earthworm keys were used as additional resource.

Earthworm counts were recorded on paper in the field and transferred to Microsoft Excel. Earthworm species numbers were recorded in a lab-book and transferred to the same Microsoft Excel. The file was then converted to csv.

Licensing and constraints

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

Cite this dataset as:

Keith, A.; Reinsch, S.; Cagnarini, C.; Emmett, B.A.; Cosby, B.J. (2023). Earthworm species identification and counts at three long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/2636c7e1-ec8c-4b77-9f4e-f731781191ca

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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