Soil water release curves and hydraulic conductivity measurements at four long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England

https://doi.org/10.5285/419af5cd-8adc-4400-9a28-d8e1d48b0bd7

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

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This dataset contains soil water release curves and un-saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements from four 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 four grassland-to-woodland contrasts were located across England and sampled once : Gisburn (Gisburn-1, Gisburn-2), Wytham Woods, and Kielder Forest.

Soil water release curves were measured for topsoil (0-5 cm) using the HYPROP system (UMS, Munich, Germany). Soil water infiltration (unsaturated hydraulic conductivity) was measured during soil sampling campaigns.

Soil hydraulic measurements in this dataset are collocated with aboveground biomass production estimates and litter layer depth measurements, soil physical, chemical and biological properties (0-1 m), 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

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View numbers valid from 27 October 2023 Download numbers valid from 20 June 2024 (information prior to this was not collected)

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

Both soil hydraulic measurements were taken in grids 2 and 5.

The soil samples (n=2-3 per grid) for measuring soil water release curves were taken using the HYPROP system (UMS, Munich, Germany) metal ring (5 cm deep, precise volume). The curves were measured using a WP4 potentiometer (Decagon devices, Pullman, Washington, USA). Data were automatically recorded by the HYPROP software and were exported as a .xlsx file which was then converted to .csv.

Soil water infiltration (cm d-1, conductivity) was measured with a Minidisk infiltrometer (n=2-3 per grid). Water volume loss over time (sec) at a relevant tension was recorded using a stopwatch in the field . Data were collected on field sheets, transferred to Microsoft Excel, and data curves were visually inspected before being transferred to a Microsoft Excel Macro to calculate conductivity.

Licensing and constraints

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

Cite this dataset as:

Reinsch, S.; Cagnarini, C.; Cosby, B.J.; Emmett, B.A.; Keith, A.; Lebron, I.; Mason, K.; Robinson, D.A. (2023). Soil water release curves and hydraulic conductivity measurements at four long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/419af5cd-8adc-4400-9a28-d8e1d48b0bd7

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This dataset is included in the following collections

Co-located ecological data from five long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England measured between 2018 and 2021

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