Soil Carbon and Microbial Data from the 180-Year Broadbalk Fertilization Experiment

A 180-year-long fertilization experiment at Rothamsted, UK, provides data on soil organic carbon accumulation mechanisms. The dataset, created by Wankun Pan and last updated in April 2026, combines 14C isotope labeling and metagenomics to compare organic and inorganic fertilization effects. It is a small dataset of 195.5 KB, available in R and XLSX formats.

Use Cases

• Modeling soil carbon sequestration pathways based on long-term fertilization treatments.
• Analyzing microbial community traits linked to soil organic carbon dynamics.
• Comparing the efficacy of organic versus inorganic fertilization for climate change mitigation.
• Studying necromass contributions to soil carbon pools using isotopic data.

Strengths

• Data originates from the 180-year-long Broadbalk Experiment, providing a rare long-term perspective.
• Combines 14C isotope labeling and metagenomics techniques for mechanistic insights.
• Explicitly compares organic (cattle manure) and inorganic fertilization regimes.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is very small (195.5 KB), indicating limited scope or a highly focused subset of data.

Provenance

Source

Broadbalk Experiment at Rothamsted, UK.

Collection Method

Combined 14C isotope labeling and metagenomics techniques on long-term experimental plots.

Time Range

Experiment spans 180 years; specific data collection period is not stated.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 07:29:38; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Rothamsted, United Kingdom.