Soil physico-chemistry, high-frequency soil nitrate, PLFA microbial communities, greenhouse gas emissions and litter quantity and quality under oak decline at Writtle Woodlands, Essex, UK, 2022-2023
Dhandapani, S., Shaw, L., McNeil, T., Lu, B., Booth, O., Corbett, L., Lunn, J., Nightingale, A., Niu, X., Roose, T., John, J., Lin, H., Adekanmbi, A.A., Dudley, A., Holt, L., O'Brien, M., Frost, H., Xiao, F. (2026). Soil physico-chemistry, high-frequency soil nitrate, PLFA microbial communities, greenhouse gas emissions and litter quantity and quality under oak decline at Writtle Woodlands, Essex, UK, 2022-2023. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/26bbd3ed-adbd-464c-b31a-bbfb7052e9bf
This dataset captures one year of seasonal biogeochemical monitoring in the root zones of English oak (Quercus robur) trees affected by Acute Oak Decline (AOD), Chronic Oak Decline (COD), and healthy control trees in Writtle Woodlands, Essex, UK. Measurements include: (1) total soil nutrients at the start and end of the sampling period (2) Monthly bioavailable soil nutrients, moisture, pH, conductivity, temperature in surface soil (0-10 cm). (3) Seasonal bioavailable soil nutrients at multiple depths (0-40 cm), (4) seasonal litterfall mass and composition (leaves, seeds, wood, flowers), (5) litter chemistry (i.e., C, N, pH, and metals) (6) greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes (CO2, CH4, N2O) from static chambers, and (7) microbial community structure derived from phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiling. Data were collected between October 2022 and August 2023 at three replicated trees per health status category (AOD, COD, healthy). Measurements also include: (8) High frequency nitrate concentrations and soil moisture content obtained using in situ sensors (one sensor per tree per health status) and daily rainfall totals. The data enable assessment of temporal changes in soil chemistry, litter dynamics, microbial communities, and GHG fluxes in relation to tree health.
Soil and litter were sampled monthly or seasonally from fixed positions around nine trees (three per health class). Laboratory analyses included inorganic nitrogen by KCl extraction and Skalar SAN++ autoanalyser, available elements by Mehlich-3 extraction and ICP-OES (Perkin Elmer Avio 550 Max), total C and N by Flash 2000 Elemental Analyzer, and microbial community profiling by PLFA-GC-FID. Greenhouse gas fluxes (CO2, CH4, N2O) were measured using static chambers and gas chromatography. High-frequency soil nitrate and moisture were monitored using a custom-built Droplet Microfluidic-Based In Situ Analyzer (University of Southampton) installed at 10 cm depth. The analyzer was laboratory-calibrated, maintained monthly, and field-recalibrated using nitrate standards. Quality control included routine calibration and in-house reference materials.
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Decoding Nitrogen Dynamics in Soil through Novel Integration of in-situ Wireless Soil Sensors with Numerical Modeling