Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc31m

Description of the data and file structure

Description

This dataset was collected as part of a study examining total and labile carbon and nitrogen in anthropogenic and native soils to assess the quality of soil organic carbon across the five boroughs of New York City. Soil samples from 13 soil series were analyzed for key properties, including bulk density, pH, total carbon and nitrogen, microbial biomass, mineralizable carbon and nitrogen, and black carbon. The data were used to evaluate differences in carbon and nitrogen pools across soil types.

File and variables

File: Total_and_labile_carbon_and_nitrogenData_ForPublication.csv

Laboratory analysis

Soil pH was assessed using the Oakton pH electrode after mixing soil and water at a 1:1 volume ratio (Soil Survey Staff, 2014). Bulk Density was determined from oven-dried soil (105 °C) and calculated by dividing the dry mass by the volume of intact core samples. Total carbon and nitrogen were quantified using a flash combustion/oxidation technique with an Elementar varioMax Cube elemental analyzer (detection limit 0.02–500 mg or 100%). Soil total carbon pool (kg C/m²) for a specific soil depth was calculated by multiplying the concentration of carbon (mg C/g soil) by the areal density (g soil/cm²) (Garten et al., 1999) and correcting for the coarse fragment fraction (>2 mm) (Poeplau et al., 2017). The areal density of the soil was calculated by multiplying the layer's bulk density (g soil/cm³) by its thickness or depth (cm), (Pouyat et al., 2002). Microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen content were analyzed using the chloroform fumigation-incubation method developed by Jenkinson & Powlson (1976). Pools of readily labile or mineralizable carbon and nitrogen were quantified from the production of CO2 and total inorganic nitrogen during a 10-day incubation of unfumigated samples at room temperature (Robertson et al., 1999).

 

References

Garten, C. T., Post, Iii, W. M., Hanson, P. J., & Cooper, L. W. (1999). Forest soil carbon inventories and dynamics along an elevation gradient in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Biogeochemistry, 45(2), 115–145. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006121511680

Jenkinson, D. S., & Powlson, D. S. (1976). The effects of biocidal treatments on metabolism in soil—V. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 8(3), 209–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-0717(76)90005-5

Poeplau, C., Vos, C., & Don, A. (2017). Soil organic carbon stocks are systematically overestimated by misuse of the parameters bulk density and rock fragment content. SOIL, 3(1), 61–66. https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-3-61-2017

Pouyat, R., Groffman, P., Yesilonis, I., & Hernandez, L. (2002). Soil carbon pools and fluxes in urban ecosystems. Environmental Pollution, 116, S107–S118. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-7491(01)00263-9

Robertson, G. P., Coleman, D. C., Bledsoe, C. S., & Sollins, P. (Eds.). (1999). Standard Soil Methods for Long-Term Ecological Research. Oxford University PressNew York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195120837.001.0001

Soil Survey Staff. (2014). Soil Survey Field and Laboratory Methods Manual. Soil Survey Investigations Report No. 51, Version 2.0. R. Burt and Soil Survey Staff (ed.). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service.

File description

Total_and_labile_carbon_and_nitrogenData_ForPublication.csv: This data set includes concentrations (g/g soil) and pool (g /m²) of total carbon, microbial biomass carbon, mineralizable carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, mineralizable nitrogen, bulk density, C/N ratio, black C, and pH with depth for 13 soil series including 3 naturally deposited (ND) and 10 human-altered and human-transported (HAHT) soils across New York City.

Variable Name                Description                                                                                                            Unit           

SoilSeries                           Name of the soil series                                                                         Not applicable

ParentMaterials                Parent material types                                                                            Not applicable        

SurfDeep                            Surface or deep category                                                                     Not applicable

Depthcm                             Depth range of the soil horizon                                                                             cm

Mean.Depth.Range           Mean depth range                                                                                                   cm

Depth_cat                            Depth category (e.g., 1, 2, 3)                                                              Not applicable          

Heightcm                            Heigh/ thickness of soil horizon                                                                            cm

%TC                                      Percent total carbon                                                                                                 %

TCgCpergSoil                      Total carbon                                                                                                   g C/g soil

RockFragmm                       Rock fragment in soil                                                                                            mm

TCg/m2                                Total carbon                                                                                                       g C /m²

TCKg/m2                              Total carbon                                                                                                     kg C /m²

BulkDensityg/cm3              Bulk density                                                                                                         g/cm³

CNRatio                                     Carbon to nitrogen ratio                                                                            Unitless

MBCugCpergSoil                      Microbial biomass carbon                                                                   µg C/g soil

MBCkgCperm2                         Microbial biomass carbon                                                                        kg C/ m²

MBCgCperm2                            Microbial biomass carbon                                                                         g C /m²

PoolLabileCugCpergSoil          Mineralizable carbon                                                                             µg C/g soil

                                                 (pool over incubation period)                                                     

PoolkgCperm2                           Mineralizable carbon                                                                               kg C/m²         

PoolgCperm2                             Mineralizable carbon                                                                                 g C/m²

%TotalN                                     Percent total nitrogen                                                                                         %

TotalNgNpergSoil                     Total nitrogen                                                                                          g N/g soil

TotalNgN/m2                             Total nitrogen                                                                                              g N/m²

TotalNKgN/m2                          Total nitrogen                                                                                            kg N /m²

MBNugNpergDrySoil                Microbial biomass nitrogen                                                              µg N/g soil

MBNgNperm2                           Microbial biomass nitrogen                                                                     g N/ m²

MBNkgNperm2                         Microbial biomass nitrogen                                                                  kg N / m²

NetNMineralizationugN/gdrysoil/day   Potential net nitrogen mineralization                     µg N/g soil/day

PoolMineralizationugN/gdrysoil           Mineralizable nitrogen                                                        µg N/g soil

                                                               (pool over incubation period)                                                     

PoolMineralizationkgN/m2                   Mineralizable nitrogen                                                                kg N/m²

PoolMineralizationgN/m2                     Mineralizable nitrogen                                                                 g N/ m²

%BlackC                                                    Black Carbon                                                                                           %

pH                                                           Soil pH                                                                                                Unitless   

                                                

Code/software

Statistical analysis and data visualization were performed using R software (version 4.2.3) in RStudio. The following R packages were used:

• ggpubr – to generate Q-Q plots, bar plots, calculate bracket positions, and annotate significance.

• ggsignif – to annotate significance on bar plots.

• ggplot2 and ggthemes – for general plotting and theme customization.

• janitor, dplyr, and plyr – for data cleaning and grouped statistical summaries.

• rstatix – for statistical testing.

• FSA – to perform Dunn’s post hoc test following the Kruskal-Wallis test.

• rcompanion – to generate compact letter displays from pairwise comparisons.

• plotrix – for calculating standard error.

  
  

The workflow included:

1. Normality assessment using Q-Q plots and the Shapiro-Wilk test.
2. Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance.
3. Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn’s post hoc test with Bonferroni adjustment where applicable.
4. Tukey HSD for pairwise comparisons following ANOVA, where applicable.
5. Bar plots were created with group means and standard errors, annotated with p-values or compact letter displays to indicate statistical significance.

No executable code is included in this submission, but all analyses can be reproduced using R with the listed packages.

Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

• This dataset is not publicly available elsewhere. All data are original and generated as part of this study.

Data was derived from the following sources:

• This dataset was not derived from other sources.