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Harvard Forest Data Archive

HF261

Soil Chemistry and Moisture in Macrosystems Biodiversity Project at Harvard Forest 2012

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Data

Overview

  • Lead: Jizhong Zhou, Robert Waide, James Brown
  • Investigators: Lina Shen
  • Contact: Information Manager
  • Start date: 2012
  • End date: 2012
  • Status: complete
  • Location: Harvard Forest
  • Latitude: +42.53780 to +42.54054 degrees
  • Longitude: -72.17899 to -72.17329 degrees
  • Elevation: 352 to 363 meter
  • Datum: WGS84
  • Taxa:
  • Release date: 2023
  • Language: English
  • EML file: knb-lter-hfr.261.4
  • DOI: digital object identifier
  • EDI: data package
  • DataONE: data package
  • Related links:
  • Study type: short-term measurements
  • Research topic: biodiversity studies; international research projects; regional studies
  • LTER core area: primary production, organic matter movement, mineral cycling
  • Keywords: ammonium, biodiversity, carbon, nitrate, nitrogen, ph, soil chemistry, soil moisture
  • Abstract:

    Patterns of biodiversity, such as the increase toward the tropics and the peaked curve during ecological succession, are fundamental phenomena for ecology. Such patterns have multiple, interacting causes, but temperature emerges as a dominant factor across organisms from microbes to trees and mammals, and across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments. However, there is little consensus on the underlying mechanisms, even as global temperatures increase and the need to predict their effects becomes more pressing.

    The purpose of this project is to generate and test theory for how temperature impacts biodiversity through its effect on biochemical processes and metabolic rate. A combination of standardized surveys in the field and controlled experiments in the field and laboratory measure diversity of three taxa -- trees, invertebrates, and microbes -- and key biogeochemical processes of decomposition in seven forests distributed along a geographic gradient of increasing temperature from cold temperate to warm tropical.

    Soil chemistry (TN, TC, NH4-N, NO3-N, and pH) and moisture measurements were taken from soil cores from an array of 21 1m2 subplots and processed by the University of Oklahoma Institute for Environmental Genomics as part of a macrosystems biodiversity and latitude project supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement DEB#1065836.

  • Methods:

    A nested sampling design was implemented to survey the background pools of regional taxonomic diversity at six forest sites across America along a latitudinal gradient of increasing temperature: Niwot, Andrews, Harvard, Coweeta, Luquillo and Barro Colorado Island. At each site, we located a central subplot first and then laid out 1-m2 subplots in four directions with distances of 1m, 10m, 50m, 100m and 200m from the central subplot. In each m2 plot, 9 soil cores were collected and pooled to form a soil sample. By this sampling method, 21 samples were collected for each site with a total of 126 samples. The soil moisture was measured by putting 1.5 g soil into 65 °C oven until constant weight was reached. The percentage of weight loss after oven dry to the original weight was calculated as soil moisture content (%). Soil pH was measured in soil suspension with a soil:water ratio of 1:2.5 (weight : volume) according to the standard protocol described previously (Ministry of Agriculture 1986). The soil C and N contents were measured by a LECO TruSpec Carbon and Nitrogen Analyzer (LECO Corporation, St. Joseph, MI) in the Soil, Water and Forage Analytical Laboratory at the Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK). In the same analytical laboratory, the soil NH4+, NO3- contents extracted from soils with 1M KCl based on the standard protocol described previously (Bremner 1965) and measured by Lachat Quickchem 8500 series 2 instrument (Lachat, Loveland, CO).

  • Organization: Harvard Forest. 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA 01366, USA. Phone (978) 724-3302. Fax (978) 724-3595.

  • Project: The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. (ROR).

  • Funding: National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210.

  • Use: This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

  • License: Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0)

  • Citation: Zhou J, Waide R, Brown J. 2023. Soil Chemistry and Moisture in Macrosystems Biodiversity Project at Harvard Forest 2012. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF261 (v.4). Environmental Data Initiative: https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/43c5d49ce85a42df9706fa59121f0b18.

Detailed Metadata

hf261-01: hf soil chemistry and moisture

  1. sample.id: code denoting the site (A = HJ Andrews, B = Barro Colorado, C = Coweeta, H = Harvard Forest, L = Luquillo, N = Niwot) and position in the sampling area from which the soil sample was taken. (ie, H100E). See Field Sampling page at http://macroeco.lternet.edu/?q=node/13 , Figure 3 for sampling diagram.
  2. tn: total nitrogen measured in the soil sample by percentage (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  3. tc: total carbon measured in the soil sample by percentage (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  4. nh4: NH4 (ammonium) content of the soil sample in parts per million (ppm) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  5. no3: NO3 (nitrate) content of the soil sample in parts per million (ppm) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  6. ph: pH of the soil sample (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  7. moisture: soil moisture as calculated by comparing the percentage of weight loss after oven dry to the original weight of the sample (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)