Cite this dataset as
Rowe, E.C., Toberman, H., Adams, J.L., Lawlor, A.J., Thacker, S.A., Patel, M., Tipping, E. (2016). Survey of bracken biomass, soil chemistry and other environmental factors in Snowdonia and the Lake District in 2014 [LTLS]. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/5b89d8f3-86f0-431c-844f-eda5ddae9042
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This dataset is made available under the terms of the Open Government Licence
Survey of bracken biomass, soil chemistry and other environmental factors in Snowdonia and the Lake District in 2014 [LTLS]
Format
Comma-separated values (CSV)
Spatial information
- Study area
-
- Spatial representation type
- Tabular (text)
- Spatial reference system
- OSGB 1936 / British National Grid
Temporal information
- Temporal extent
-
2014-07-21 to 2014-08-06
Provenance & quality
Soil was sampled from three places within the plot using a 5 cm diameter split-tube auger. Plant litter was removed, and the auger was inserted to 15 cm depth. In a few plots this was not possible due to the presence of stones, and instead holes were excavated to 15 cm depth and their dimensions recorded. The fresh sample was weighed, and a subsample removed and weighed. Moisture content was determined by measuring the weight of the subsample after drying for three days at 60 oC, and the organic C concentration was determined by measuring weight after ignition at 350 oC for three days. The total dry weight of soil was determined, and used to calculate bulk density on the basis of the total volume of the auger or excavated holes. The pH of fresh soil was measured in a slurry of 10 g soil in 25 mL deionised water. The remaining fresh soil sample was air-dried, and stones and roots not passing through a 2 mm sieve were removed. The soil was then ground, and subsamples were taken for chemical analysis. Concentrations of soil total C, N, P, K, Ca and Mg were determined using the same methods as for plant tissue analysis. Organic P was obtained as the difference between total P and inorganic P concentrations. A 0.5 g milled sub-sample was used for the extraction of inorganic P using 25 ml of 0.5 M sulphuric acid, which was shaken for 16 hours, centrifuged at 10 000 rpm for 30 minutes and filtered into 50 ml test tubes. The filtrate was analysed for total inorganic P using molybdate colorimetry with a Seal Analytical AQ2 discrete analyser.
Soil total N/C ratio was used as an indicator of N availability. The other nutrient elements were expressed as stocks, since mass concentration may under-represent availability in dense mineral soils and element/C ratio may underrepresent availability in more organic soils (Rowe et al., 2012). Stocks (g m-2) in the top 15 cm of soil were calculated using the bulk density measurement. The stock of organic P, and total element stocks of K, Ca and Mg, were used as indicators of availability.
Species occurrence was used to characterise environmental conditions on the basis of indicator scores (Diekmann, 2003). Environmental trait scores for European species were defined by Ellenberg et al. (1992) on axes corresponding to fertility ('Ellenberg N'), alkalinity ('Ellenberg R'), moisture ('Ellenberg F') and light availability ('Ellenberg L'). In the current study, plot-specific values on each of these axes were calculated as the mean values for the species present of indicator scores as recalculated for UK species by Hill et al. (2000). Cover-weighting was not applied, in part to prevent the scores for bracken itself dominating the mean scores, but also since basing indicator scores on presence-absence data reduces the effect of short-term environmental variation (Kafer and Witte, 2004).
Related
This dataset is included in the following collections
Citations
Correspondence/contact details
Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 2UW
UNITED KINGDOM
Authors
Other contacts
- Rights holder
-
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
- Custodian
-
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centreenquiries@ceh.ac.uk
- Publisher
-
NERC Environmental Information Data Centreinfo@eidc.ac.uk
Additional metadata
- Topic categories
- environment
- INSPIRE theme
- Soil
- Keywords
- Bracken , Environmental survey , Lake District , limitation , macronutrient , micronutrient , molybdenum , nitrogen , NPP , phosphorus , potassium , productivity , Pteridium , Snowdonia , soil , Soil , stochiometry
- Funding
- Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/J011533/1
- Last updated
- 04 March 2024 10:49
Get the data
By accessing or using this dataset, you agree to the terms of the relevant licence agreement(s). You will ensure that this dataset is cited in any publication that describes research in which the data have been used.
This dataset is made available under the terms of the Open Government Licence
CITE AS: Rowe, E.C.; Toberman, H.; Adams, J.L.; Lawlor, A.J.; Thacker, S.A.; Patel, M.; Tipping, E. (2016). Survey of bracken biomass, soil chemistry and other environmental factors in Snowdonia and the Lake District in 2014 [LTLS]. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/5b89d8f3-86f0-431c-844f-eda5ddae9042
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