EDI Staging Environment
This data package contains soil carbon and nitrogen data at a range of soil depths from 30 ephemerally-flooded desert wetlands, or playas, in the Jornada Basin of southern New Mexico, USA. We conducted this study to assess how catchment biophysical variables control soil organic carbon and nitrogen in playas and how playas function differently than upland ecosystems. We chose 30 playas from across this Chihuahuan Desert Basin and collected 36 soil samples from four depths and nine locations. Soil cores samples were taken along two perpendicular transect lines to account for a topographic gradient from the edge of the playa to the center of the playa. At each of the nine locations, one sample was collected at four depths (0–10 cm, 10–30 cm, 30–60 cm, 60–100 cm). We measured soil organic carbon and total nitrogen concentrations in these soils using elemental combustion analysis. Using bulk density measurements for each depth range (m), we converted each soil measurement (g/g) to calculate concentrations of organic carbon and nitrogen per unit area (g/m^2) within the depth-ranges sampled. Data on the geometry of the playas and their associated catchments is also provided. This study is complete.
For further information, refer to:
McKenna, Owen P., and Osvaldo E. Sala. "Biophysical controls over concentration and depth distribution of soil organic carbon and nitrogen in desert playas." Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 121, no. 12 (2016): 3019-3029.
EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:
